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M&G buys majority stake in MMC house builder
Investment giant M&G has bought a majority stake in a Surrey-based house builder, which it hopes will help speed up the development of thousands of homes.
The institutional investor plans to put £500m into the new partnership with Greencore Construction over the next three to five years.
The majority stake in the developer was made on behalf of M&G’s policyholders in its £143bn Prudential With Profits Fund.
Greencore builds homes using a modern method of construction (MMC), which uses a closed panel timber frame, manufactured off-site and insulated with natural materials such as hemp, lime and wood fibre.
According to the house builder, this allows it to build energy-efficient homes which lock up more carbon than is emitted both during construction and over the lifetime of the home.
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In a release, M&G stated that Greencore’s approach is a unique and disruptive solution within the housebuilding sector, which needs to make major changes to its methods in order to meet the UK’s net zero targets and help people reduce fuel bills.
It said the investment will help Greencore expand its customer base of existing and new institutional clients for new developments.
The co-development with Greencore will be led by M&G’s real estate investment team on behalf of investors in its residential property and shared ownership strategies.
In March last year, M&G launched a shared ownership fund, which will see it partner with housing association Hyde to deliver roughly 2,000 shared ownership properties.
Ian Pritchett, managing director of Greencore, said: “With this investment, Greencore can scale to have a transformational impact on sustainable housebuilding standards in this country.
“The built environment is one of the biggest emitters of carbon, both in construction and occupation, but we’ve shown it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Jack Daniels, chief investment officer at M&G, said the investment will enable thousands of people to live in high-quality, comfortable and energy-efficient homes.
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