Frogmore to exit fund management business

Notting Hill Gate Estate, sold by Frogmore in September 2025

The company confirmed the move after a series of recent administrations as it winds down its £400m FREP III value-add fund – with a host of schemes being sold off or handed back to lenders.

Most recently, Frogmore’s 86-home retirement village Friary Meadow in Titchfield was placed into administration. Hampshire Trust Bank had refinanced the scheme last summer but is now hoping to claw back the £10.77m it is owed via a creditors’ voluntary liquidation process – approved earlier this month.

In a statement, Frogmore chief executive Jo Allen told Property Week: “While we are exiting the fund management business, Frogmore itself is well capitalised.

“The business is no stranger to reinventing itself. Frogmore transitioned from being a publicly listed company, to a private company and then, in 2005, to a fund manager. The current economic climate makes fundraising for smaller, country-specific managers challenging and therefore we will, for the time being, revert to a private property company model.”

The highest-profile administration came in January, when Frogmore surrendered its 1,500-home Cotton Quay development site in Salford, owing more than £13m to lender Leumi, according to documents filed on Companies House. Administrators earlier this month confirmed a buyer has been found for the scheme, which is yet to progress past the planning stage.

Frogmore special-purpose vehicles (SPVs) holding care homes in London’s Abbey Road and Kensington Square were also placed into administration in recent months as part of the wind-down of FREP III, while a third, Princes Square, was sold on the open market in December.

A source, who requested anonymity, told Property Week that Frogmore’s recent activity “points to a group managing balance sheet and financing challenges, rather than a controlled or voluntary winding down of funds to return capital to investors”.

Another source told PW: “The CEO is closing up shop and is liquidating the remaining funds’ assets as quickly as possible.

Frogmore CEO Jo Allen with predecessor and chairman Paul White

“Frogmore was well known in the real estate world and previously had a strong reputation and so its demise is unfortunate as its lender banks dash to protect their exposures leaving investors nursing substantial losses.”

Responding, Allen said: “We have not received any investor complaints – they voted for us to continue as liquidating trustee. Further, we understand from investors, most of which are large international pension funds, that our experience in the past five years or so with FREP III is mirrored across the private equity real estate market generally.”

Allen said FREP III had been terminated with investor consent, secured in October 2025, and that the companies had been put into administration as part of a planned wind-down of FREP III structures.

“Valuations for Titchfield, Salford Quays and the care homes had fallen in recent years, in line with general movements in the UK market,” she said.

“Other assets in the fund had been divested through to December 2021 generating solid returns. Investors in FREP III agreed last year that it was not in their interest to continue holding the final few investments and voted for FREPFM (Frogmore) to continue as liquidation trustee.”

Frogmore launched its first of four UK private equity funds in 2006. The third fund, FREP III, closed in 2015, exceeding its £350m target, and as of 2023 was fully committed into 11 assets.

Friary Meadow, Titchfield site

Frogmore’s Titchfield retirement development has been beset by issues. Construction delays meant the development completed two years late, and shortly after completion at the start of 2020, contractor Midas Construction collapsed into administration, delaying remediation of construction faults at the site. Furthermore, just 29 sales have been completed to date – with Frogmore moving to a hybrid sales and rental model in response.

The development was funded in part by a senior debt development from Bank Leumi, but with the facility due to mature in July 2025, and the Israeli bank unwilling to extend, the asset was brought to market. Despite being under offer twice, the sales fell through with the asset subsequently refinanced by Hampshire Trust Bank.

Frogmore’s SPV owns 58 of the 86 retirement village units – of which 21 are let to third parties – as well as the freehold land known as Friary Meadow. Administrator’s proposals to move forward with a sale of the remaining assets were approved earlier this month. It is estimated that a sale could raise up to £12.96m.