Likewise in Newcastle, the council, the university and L&G is developing the only city centre quarter of its kind in the UK. It is a 24-acre testbed where hundreds of researchers, businesses and progressive homeowners will live and work side by side.
It is also involved, as of last autumn, with Bruntwood SciTech, which is the largest property platform dedicated to science and technology businesses. Their 50:50 joint venture envisages assets going from 1.6 million square feet now to 7.2 million sq ft over 10 years.
The other thing is that many people do want to invest in small growing companies but cannot get access to them. This is particularly true of millennials who don’t have the guaranteed pensions of baby-boomers, or the property assets of their parents. This “exclusivity gap” has become more and more marked in recent years as private companies stay private for longer — indeed they can have several rounds of funding without having the need to go public.
The unicorns — private companies, often in high tech, with a value of £1 billion or more — are a case in point. They almost always have equity and debt finance as they expand, but often retail investors are not allowed to participate.
Instead they are funded by venture capitalists or some other bodies which exclude the public. But if pensions could participate, a beneficiary’s retirement income could be increased substantially with just a moderate allocation to private markets.
Pension funds are patient capital holding for the long term. L&G is one of the pioneers investing in property, housing and infrastructure for the very long term. Investing in start-ups and scale-ups seems a natural next step.
