PARIS-UK investment and fund management group Grosvenor has won approval to launch its first French institutional OPCI property fund from financial market supervisory authority AMF. It is planning to invest $378 million in 2010 and is mainly looking for town center or retail park assets through direct acquisitions or sale-and-leaseback operations.

Steve Cowen, investment director for continental Europe, said the Grosvenor Retail Invest France open-end fund will extend its strategy of targeted investments in French retail. Strategy in continental Europe is focused on a directly-managed proprietary portfolio, its stake in Portuguese shopping center specialist Sonae Sierra, and its fund management business. France is a core market for the group, and after setting up its first continental Europe fund, Grosvenor Retail European Properties in 2004, it established the dedicated Grosvenor French Retail Investments in 2006.

Grosvenor's investments on the continent are concentrated on retail which it sees as having the most attractive long-term risk-return profile. It invests in high street properties, out-of-town warehouses, shopping galleries and malls. The group owns much of London’s Mayfair and Belgravia, originating out of land held by the Grosvenor family since the 17th century.