The Real Estate Research Centre hosted a small private event for long-term investors on the 23rd and 24th June with senior representatives from sovereign wealth funds and other long term investors including GIC (Singapore), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Queensland Investment Corporation, M&G, British Land and the University of Cambridge Investment Office.
The event chaired and organised by Nick Mansley was introduced by Lord Wilson of Dinton, former head of the civil service who gave his overview on some of the challenges of making a long term impact in Government as well as highlighting some of the aspects of Cambridge that make it different and allow creativity to thrive. Colin Lizieri introduced a session exploring why investment flows to particular cities. Eva Steiner led a session looking at capital structure decisions and some of the challenges on getting alignment of interests between investors and manager. Cam Middleton from the engineering department gave a fascinating presentation on the role that sensors are playing in infrastructure and that led to a discussion about the scope for efficiency savings in construction of both buildings and infrastructure going forward given the technologies available today. Nick Mansley introduced a debate about what is real estate for investment purposes and exposure to operational risk and different types of investment structures. Finally, Andrew Baum led a discussion about funds and fees. The event was held under Chatham House rules.