THE property fund manager backed by Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir David Frost is planning to spend £3 billion on property in India, Japan and China, The Times has learnt.

The war chest of Active Asset Investment Management (aAIM) represents one of the biggest new funds set up by a British investor dedicated to the Far East.

It comes after a new £2 billion property fund set up by aAIM targeted the UK and mainland Europe.

The group is proposing to spend £1 billion in each of the three countries, but is singling out India as its priority. It will target shopping centres, mixed-use developments, IT parks and hotels. Talks have already been held with big Asian companies, including Reliance Industries, the vast private Indian conglomerate.

Private investors have already given indicative commitments to provide the £300 million of equity needed to launch the fund, which will be geared up to provide £3 billion of buying power.

It is understood that Sir Alex, Sir David and Simon Cowell, star of the ITV programme, The X Factor, are all expected to invest.

Robert Whitton, one of the founding members of aAIM is in Hong Kong attending Mipim Asia, a giant Asian property jamboree.

According to a report due to appear in PropertyWeek magazine, alongside the three core countries of India, Japan and China, the fund will also have the mandate to look at attractive deals in Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

A number of other UK-based investors have been eyeing Asia. REIT Asset Management, the owner of St Katharine Docks, the marina and luxury residential complex near the Tower of London, has already ploughed hundreds of millions of pounds into India and is looking into opportunities in Japan.

Elliott Bernerd and Nick Leslau, two of Britain’s best known private property entrepreneurs, are also known to have run the slide rule over investment opportunities in India.

The plan by aAIM to conquer the Far East comes just weeks after The Times revealed that Bank of Scotland had agreed to take a 20 per cent stake in the aAIM management company, enabling its founders, Mark Tagliaferri, a former corporate financier at Nomura, Mr Whitton and Stuart Le Gassick, to share an estimated £15 million windfall just three years after setting up the company.

The group specialises in buying high-quality new properties, let to blue-chip companies. It made an 80 per cent return on its first investment, an MFI office in Northampton, which was sold for £8 million. AAIM has completed £1 billion of commercial property transactions in the UK and on the Continent.

WHO ARE THE BACKERS?

• Sir Alex Ferguson — tough-talking Scottish manager of Manchester United Football Club who has guided the team to eight league titles
• Sir David Frost — TV broadcaster of shows including That Was the Week That Was, Breakfast with Frost and The Frost Report
• Simon Cowell — music guru and feared judge on the talent shows Pop Idol and The X Factor

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