• Newcore has successfully re-certified as a B Corp with a score of 164.6, making it the highest scoring dedicated real estate and infrastructure investment manager.
• The score makes the social infrastructure specialist the third highest scoring company in the UK, and the fourth highest scoring financial services business worldwide.
• The firm has overseen a marked improvement in score from when it first gained certification at 112.6 in 2020.
• Certified B Corporations are companies verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.

Newcore has successfully recertified as a B Corp with a score of 164.6 out of 200, making it the world’s highest scoring dedicated real asset fund manager. The score represents a 52-point increase from when Newcore first obtained certification at 112.6 in 2020.

The recertification also makes Newcore the third highest scoring company out of around 2000 UK-based B Corp businesses, and the fourth highest scoring financial services company worldwide.

The firm’s social and environmental performance improved in all five criteria on which B Corps are evaluated: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers.

B Corps are companies that have been independently verified by non-profit impact advisory firm B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.

Firms must recertify for B Corp every three years to ensure that they maintain the standards required to be verified – a minimum score of 80 to be eligible for recertification – across their environmental and social performance.

Newcore adopts a place-based investment strategy of turning disused or inefficient assets into real estate that serves socially productive uses with benefit to local environments. Target social infrastructure sub-sectors for the firm include clinical healthcare, education and childcare, storage, waste management, and transport. The manager recently acquired its first GP surgery and plans to invest £100m in clinical healthcare over the next 2 years.

Kate Sandle, Director of Sustainability at Newcore Capital, said: “B Corp certification is – a notoriously rigorous and thorough process, so to  re-certified with such an improved score is a testament to the work Newcore has put in to creating social impact and meeting high environmental standards over the last three years.

We look forward to continuing to improve in the future and working with B Lab and the B Corp community to encourage businesses to operate for the benefit of their broader stakeholders”

At the end of 2023 Newcore launched its latest core plus vehicle, the Newcore Social Infrastructure Income Fund (NSIIF), previously The Newcore Sustainable Income Trust, which is targeting a £350m equity raise. This followed a £190m final close for the latest vehicle in Newcore’s flagship value-add fund series, Newcore Strategic Situations V (NSS V). The manager’s B Corp status played a key role in the successful fundraise.

Hugo Llewelyn, CEO of Newcore Capital, said: “This is a very proud moment for Newcore. The business was conceived in 2011 with the conviction that there was a need for capital to be managed more responsibly and sustainably than the short-termist pre-2009 model. The team and I have worked very hard to ensure this principle has been integrated across all our operations.

“Social infrastructure makes a tangible, real difference to people’s everyday lives. Because of this, we believe it is particularly important for businesses working within the space to maintain high standards in relation to the environmental and social impact produced by their investments, and the score verifies that we have put this belief into practice.”

We are pleased to share our results from the 2023 Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Report, in which we were awarded 4 or 5 stars, out of a maximum of 5 stars, for all relevant modules.

We are proud to have scored above the median in our peer group in all relevant modules, but acknowledge there is always room for improvement.

As a signatory to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment (UN PRI), we report on our responsible investment activities using the PRI’s Reporting Framework.

Read our 2022-2023 ESG & Impact report for further information on our sustainable investment approach.

• Specialist UK social infrastructure real estate fund manager has acquired three assets for a total of £11m+
• The purchases represent two education-enabling assets in world-leading university cities Oxford and Cambridge, as well as a food distribution centre in Colchester
• Acquisitions follow Newcore’s announcement that it has launched a core-plus investment vehicle, The Newcore Social Infrastructure Income Fund – its largest fund yet

Newcore Capital (‘Newcore’), the UK-focused real estate investment manager specialising in social infrastructure, has acquired two education assets in Cambridge and Oxford as well as a food distribution asset in Colchester. The assets were acquired for a combined sum of approximately £11m, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.1%.

The assets in Cambridge and Oxford were acquired on behalf of Newcore’s long standing core-plus separate accounts and represent 600 further education places in the world-renowned university cities. Both sites are let entirely to Aspect International Language Academy (trading as Kaplan International). There is significant scope to provide additional educational uses, such as special educational needs and childcare, if the tenant ever chose to vacate.

The food distribution centre in Gosbecks Road, Colchester has been acquired on behalf of Newcore’s latest value-add fund, the Newcore Strategic Situations V (NSS V), which closed in May this year having raised £190m in equity commitments. Support for the fund included the Merseyside and Clwyd local government pension schemes. NSS V remains active in the market for educational properties as well as other social infrastructure assets, including waste, open storage, healthcare and veterinary.

Newcore announced in October the launch of a new core-plus investment vehicle named The Newcore Sustainable Income Trust, which is targeting £375m in equity commitments. The firm says the vehicle – the firm’s largest fund yet – aims to capitalise the strong underlying demand fundamentals for social infrastructure real estate at a time of market dislocation, while its size is indicative of Newcore’s belief in the positive investment outlook for the sector.

Harry Savory, CIO of Newcore, said: “Owing to their low passing rents and the underlying societal need for the services that they enable, these three properties are expected to perform strongly on a long-term risk-adjusted basis. The properties in Cambridge and Oxford would sustain a wide range of educational uses, including childcare and special educational needs, if the current tenant ever chose to vacate. Colchester is an important hub for food distribution – an increasingly important societal trend and therefore sector of interest to Newcore.”

Hugo Llewelyn, CEO of Newcore, said: “Our purchases are always very conscious of the wider societal shifts taking place in social infrastructure provision across the UK, as increasingly stretched government resources creates significant opportunity for private investment in the sector. They are similarly conscious of minimising risk to the highest extent for us, our tenants, and investors. Market conditions, though bleak overall, have created a fantastic window of opportunity to satisfy this requirement through the availability of social infrastructure real estate entailing resilient demand fundamentals at highly attractive discounts.”