Thames River Capital is set to launch the Thames River Property Growth & Income Fund (TRPGIF) on 23 March, subject to the relevant regulatory approval.

TRPGIF, which will be a Guernsey domiciled open-ended investment company with a listing on the Channel Islands stock exchange, will offer investors a choice of accumulation or distribution shares denominated in Sterling and Euros.

TRPGIF will seek to provide investors with a combination of steady capital growth coupled with a growing level of income from a portfolio of listed property companies and direct properties primarily in the UK and continental Europe. The managers believe that the fund will offer investors a significant opportunity to diversify their portfolios by investing in an asset class that has historically displayed a low correlation to both bonds and equities. The company also expects the fund to have strong inflation protection characteristics and to offer excellent prospects for continued strong investment returns, as well as providing a growing level of income.

The fund will be managed by Marcus Phayre-Mudge, co-manager of the GBP 600million, award-winning TR Property Investment Trust plc (TRPIT), which, on an NAV basis, has returned 114.2 per cent over 3 years to 31 December 2004 versus 102.1 per cent for the S&P Citigroup European Property Index and 46.1 per cent for the UK Investment Property Databank Monthly Index. Both Bloomberg and Investment Week Magazine's 2004 Investment Trust Awards, named TRPIT as Best Specialist Investment Trust 2004.

Phayre-Mudge is part of a team of four property specialists who worked at Henderson Global Investors before joining Thames River Capital between October 2004 and January 2005.

"We are delighted to be able to offer a new fund capitalising on our skills in investing in both UK direct property and Pan European property shares," he said. "The intention is for the fund to yield over 4.5 per cent, paid quarterly as well as targeting capital growth. The hybrid nature of the fund's investments - property shares and direct property - aims to offer liquidity and daily dealing in an asset class which is traditionally illiquid.

In another development, Thames River Capital has appointed Hong Kong based Peak Capital to provide a marketing and servicing facility for its funds throughout the Asian region.

"The fit is incredibly good, Peak's two principals are both long serving industry professionals who have significant knowledge and history with most of our senior fund managers," said Charlie Porter, CEO of Thames River. "We had found it increasingly difficult to service investors properly from a different time zone and Peak provide an elegant solution to the problem."

Simon Powell of Peak added: "We have known a lot of the guys at Thames River Capital for a long time and are thrilled to have entered this relationship. Thames River Capital is a big brand in Europe but relatively unknown in Asia. Given the quality of Thames River's performance and the fact that their fund range is littered with AA & AAA ratings from Standard & Poors, we see this as a great opportunity".