Ashburton Investments has raised just under $250m of the $450m final target at the first close of the RMB Westport Real Estate Development Fund II (Westport II).

Tim Diack, Head of International Distribution at Ashburton Investments, said: "We anticipate holding a final close before the end of the year."

Ashburton Investments provided significant support with fundraising for the first close with eight of the firm’s offshore and South African institutional clients investing in the fund.

Boshoff Grobler, CEO of Ashburton Investments said: “Ashburton Investments has been instrumental in raising the capital as part of the first close and we look forward to continue working with the RMB Westport management team to reach the target close within the next 12 months.”

Westport II is RMB Westport’s second African real estate focused fund, the proceeds of which will be used to invest in real estate developments in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on Nigeria, Ghana, Angola and the Ivory Coast.

The developments will be built to meet the growing demand for high-grade commercial, retail and industrial property in these and surrounding countries.

Diack said that the Fund is not constrained to West Africa, although has a primary focus on four geographies: Ghana, Nigeria, Angola and the Ivory Coast.

"In addition to our team having extensive expertise in these markets, we believe they represent those countries where we have a significant competitive advantage to deliver superior developments in economies with strong, long-term fundamentals in combination with a deep opportunity set," he said.

"We have the ability to invest up to 20% of our capital into specifically identified secondary geographies. As such, it is likely that Fund II will be diversified across five, maybe six countries," he added.

"We have an extensive pipeline we have been nurturing for some time. The maturity of some such deals was one of the catalysts for raising Fund II. We anticipate deploying capital in the coming months," Diack told Africa Global Funds.

Simon Fifield, CEO of RMB Westport, said: “Despite a number of macro-economic headwinds in certain of the territories in which we operate, strong long- term growth prospects, coupled with favorable demographics, and the pleasing trends of increasing urbanization and consumer spending have all led to high demand for retail, industrial and commercial property space.”

“It is a credit to the mature, long-term view adopted by our investor base that we have been able to secure such a substantial amount of capital on the first close,” he said.

RMB Westport’s first fund, which held a final close in 2012, is now fully invested in 11 projects, five of which have been completed.

The first close follows RMB Westport’s recent exit of the Ikeja City Mall (a fund 1 investment), which was sold to South African institutional investors.