Home REIT set to sue former investment manager as shareholders circle

Home REIT floated with the mission of providing social housing to the homeless but has been rocked by scandal over the past 18 months

Home REIT has threatened to sue its former fund manager Alvarium today as it faces its own legal challenge from a group of shareholders who claim to have been misled.

In a statement to the stock market this morning, the scandal-hit social housing firm said it intends to “bring legal proceedings against those parties it considers are responsible for wrongdoing” and was therefore moving against its former investment manager.

“To that end, the company has itself recently issued pre-action letters of claim to Alvarium Fund Managers (UK) Limited (its former alternative investment fund manager) and AlTi RE Limited, its former investment adviser’s appointed representative,” Home REIT said in a statement. “The company intends to issue further pre-action correspondence in due course.”

Alvarium spun off the unit responsible for managing Home REIT’s investment portfolio at the end of 2022 just before floating as part of Alti on the Nasdaq in New York. Since then, it has since been trying to put distance between itself and the embattled former FTSE250 social housing investor.

Home REIT’s threat of former legal action comes as it faces its own legal challenge from a group of shareholders via the firm Harcus Parker, which has been threatening to sue the company for more than a year.

Home REIT said it had now received a pre-action letter of claim from Harcus Parker on behalf of certain shareholders.

“The letter of claim alleges that the Company, along with certain other parties, provided information to investors which was false, untrue and/or misleading,” Home REIT said.

The firm added it intends “vigorously to defend itself in respect of the threatened litigation and has denied the allegations made against it”.

Regulators have been tightening the screws on Home REIT in recent months. The Financial Conduct Authority launched an investigation in January and City A.M. revealed last month that Serious Fraud Office officials had also begun inquiries into the firm.