How to Survive an Upturn

Chief Investment Officer, Victoria Brannen, interviewed in the Financial Times in How to Survive an Upturn by Alicia Clegg.

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Happy holidays for canny campers

David Stevenson looks into the UK holiday market and reports on his investigations into the Darwin Leisure Property Fund.

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The Wheels of Commerce
The Times - Friday October 31

Caravan parks are hardly the embodiment of five-star holiday luxury. The appeal of the sites has always been the immediacy of outstanding natural beauty in surroundings that are more comfortable than a tent but less costly than a B&B.

The Darwin Leisure Property fund, launched in November 2007, wants to change all of that by turning caravanning in the British countryside into a chic but still relatively cheap alternative to buy-to-let holiday homes. The managers want to transform the Carry on Camping image of caravan parks to attract more of a Kate-Mossat- Glastonbury type of crowd.

"Caravan parks occupy some of the most beautiful sites in the country. If you put a house in some of these locations they would fetch millions," says one investor in the fund.

The logic behind the idea is sound. The caravan industry is growing at 4 per cent a year, according to Mintel. The planning regime for greenfield sites is highly restrictive, meaning high barriers to entry for competitors and constrained supply. Meanwhile, demand is set to rise. The recession is expected to boost the caravan industry as people swap foreign holidays for UK "staycations". Darwin says that the "low cost and flexibility" of a caravan holiday makes it more attractive in times of economic uncertainty.

About 85 per cent of caravan sites are owned by husband-and-wife teams who lack the capital to invest in their business, according to Darwin. Park owners make their money from stable long-term cashflow: annual pitch fees from owners and tariff income from caravans for hire, as well as retail sales.

The fund will use investors' money to upgrade "unsightly" caravans with attractive lodges and make the running of the sites more efficient, resulting in higher-quality parks and improved profitability and investment returns. Parks that benefit from investor' cash will be eco-friendly and carefully landscaped. For more details visit www.darwinpim.com.
Rebecca O'Connor - The Times

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Have you got the Bottle
The Daily Mail - Money Mail - Wednesday August 13, 2008

SHARE prices are tumbling, inflation is eating away at your savings and property prices are in freefall. So what is the alternative? CHARLOTTE BEUGGE investigates the sometimes outlandish world of high-risk, speculative and often unregulated investments.

CARAVANS
CARAVANS are not just about blocking roads in summer. It's possible to invest in a fund which buys UK caravan sites. The fund, Darwin Leisure Property, is unregulated, so you can't hold it in an Isa — but you can hold it in your pension using a Sipp (Self Invested Personal Pension). It also means if it all goes wrong you won't get your money back.

It was launched at the start of this year (it is up about 1 pc compared with a 13pc fall in the FTSE 100 since January 1). Its managers buy family-owned caravan sites — residential and holiday sites — and run them. Currently, it owns four sites in the South-West but it's planning to extend eastwards. Ben Yearsley, of advisers Hargreaves Lansdown, has 5pc of his Sipp in the fund. 'I like it because I think more Britons will holiday at home due to rising oil prices and travel problems. The fund will benefit from this. However, I am young and far from risk averse — this is a high-risk investment.' The same fund managers are considering investing in marinas. Because it's not a regulated fund, if you buy it through an adviser you would have to sign a risk-warning notice, proving you understand how risky it is.

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