Legal & General makes senior transactions hire as it seeks more long income deals to drive UK regeneration

Legal & General is committed to investing its long-term capital into real assets which are economically and socially useful.  To support this, its market leading transactions team has established a reputation for sourcing clever deals and working closely with the public sector to create new high quality assets that it wants to own for the long term. 

In 2017, LGIM Real Assets completed over £2.5bn of transactions, of which £850m were acquisitions for its long income funds, the Annuity Fund and the LPI (Limited Price Inflation) Income Property Fund. Some key deals for the Annuity Fund in 2017 included the fundings of the UK Government Hub offices in Cardiff, Birmingham and Edinburgh, as well as the funding for the development of Mount Pleasant Halls in Cambridge, pre-let to St Edmund’s College.
For the LPI (Limited Price Inflation) Income Property Fund key deals last year included the recent acquisitions of Atlantic Quay 3, the central Glasgow Scottish court and tribunal building and the INTO Academic Facility at Exeter University, as well as securing a major pre-let with The UK Government following its acquisition of India Buildings in Liverpool.

Yvonne joins from M&G Real Estate where she held the position of Investment Manager on the £7bn+ Long Income Funds. Yvonne spent three years working at M&G, where she was involved in acquisitions and disposals as well as optimising value and asset management on the large property portfolios. She became the lead hotel and leisure sector specialist for UK and Europe. Prior to working at M&G, she was a Portfolio Fund Valuer at Knight Frank.
In a newly created role at Legal & General, Yvonne Ambo will be responsible for working with the Head of Long Income Transactions, Adam Kerr, to source suitable investment opportunities for the Annuity Fund and the LPI (Limited Price Inflation) Income Property Fund. The type of transactions will include sale and leasebacks, pre-let development, income strips and ground leases.

Gordon Aitchison, Director of Investment and Development at LGIM Real Assets, said: “Yvonne has significant experience at sourcing long income transactions, and we are delighted to welcome her on board to find and create more of these opportunities for our long income funds.”