Legal & General Capital makes first U.S. investment, with $500m commitment

Legal & General Capital (LGC) has formed a 50-50 partnership with U.S.-based real estate developer Ancora to create a real estate platform dedicated to driving life sciences, research and technology growth across the United States.

“While the United States is the world’s largest commercial real estate market, the lab real estate market in particular is one of the smallest sectors among other commercial U.S. asset classes,” said Sir Nigel Wilson, chief executive of Legal & General Group. “This lack of scale creates high barriers to entry for investors and has made it particularly challenging for tenants to grow due to scarcity of supply. LGC’s ability to access this opportunity via Ancora will set it apart from other sources of institutional capital seeking to participate in the market.”

The deal will see Legal & General Capital investing an initial $500 million of seed capital to form a new company, Ancora L&G, LLC. Operating under the name