On Friday 7 March, Urban Logistics REIT (SHED) announced that funds managed by Harwood Capital, including North Atlantic Smaller Companies (NAS) and the newly incorporated Achilles Investment Company (AIC), which was established to target the hefty discounts in the alternative assets space, including property, own 3.21% of SHED’s voting rights.

It would appear that the threshold was crossed on 4 March and SHED was notified on 6 March, the day before it made its own announcement regarding its proposals to internalise its fund management (click here to read our coverage of this), which are designed to rid SHED of the burden of the unfair cost disclosure rules that have contributed to its discount – other funds such as Supermarket Income REIT are considering similar arrangements.

[QD comment MR: We have long made the case that the discounts on the majority of these alternative asset funds do not make sense and that, fundamentally, the market isn’t pricing them efficiently. However, there could be significant gains to be made for investors who are prepared to take a long term view and have long felt that SHED’s low 20s discount does not reflect the quality of its assets, rental roll, tenant base and the supply demand dynamics of the subsector that it operates in. However, it would appear that the managers of Achilles do.]