The Special Opportunities REIT aims to raise £500 million in what will be the first investment trust IPO of the year.

The trust, focusing on “high-quality properties” sold by “distressed and/or highly motivated sellers,” will close applications for its IPO on 11 June, with plans to list on the London Stock Exchange six days later. The trust will be managed by the former team of LXI REIT, which merged with Londonmetric Property earlier this year.

Simon Lee, CEO of Special Opportunities REIT and former co-manager of LXI REIT, stated, “We are really excited at the prospect of admitting Special Opportunities REIT plc to the London Stock Exchange. We expect to deliver attractive crystalised returns to shareholders through investing, at what we believe is the bottom of the UK real estate market cycle and with a unique set of circumstances, in very high-quality properties being sold by distressed or highly motivated sellers, often at prices less than their already depressed current market values.”

Lee added, “We have used our extensive industry relationships to establish an attractive and deep short-term pipeline of high-quality portfolio and single asset deals against which we expect to deploy the net IPO proceeds within six months.”

The trust has already received commitments totalling between £104 million and £119 million from three cornerstone investors: GoldenTree Asset Management, TR Property Investment Trust, and other Columbia Threadneedle investment funds, as well as the Bhavnani family office.