Kames Capital, the Edinburgh-headquartered investment house with £52.1 billion (around $84 billion) of assets under management, has launched a closed-ended version of its Active Value Property Fund with founding investor commitments of £115 million.

The new version of the fund will follow the original open-ended investment strategy, targeting the high-quality secondary property market, particularly those properties in the sub £15 million price bracket, Kames said in a statement. The existing fund, which has a net initial yield of over 8 per cent and does not use debt, has delivered a return of 8.5 per cent per annum to investors since its launch in December 2009.  This compares with the IPD/AREF benchmark return of 7.2 per cent per annum.

The firm has run its active value strategy for almost four years.

The closed-ended fund will be managed by Helen Batten in the Kames property investment team, reporting to Kames property director David Wise. The fund has a seven-year life with the opportunity to extend for a further two years. The fund structure is a Jersey Property Unit Trust. It has a target return of 8-10 per cent a year.