UPDATE 1-Fund managers freeze UK institutional property funds

(Adds Legal & General, Royal London, detail, background)

By Carolyn Cohn

LONDON, April 2 (Reuters) - Investment managers BlackRock
and Schroders have suspended trading in UK real
estate funds aimed at institutional investors, citing difficulty
in getting an accurate price for their assets.

The suspension of the funds with quarterly or monthly
redemptions, whose assets total nearly 6 billion pounds ($7.5
billion), follows the freezing last month of several funds aimed
at retail investors, which allow people to get their money out
daily.

Regulators have expressed concern about funds that invest in
illiquid assets but allow investors to get their money out
regularly.

However, the fund managers said the suspensions were not due
to a flood of redemption requests.

Schroders said on its website it had suspended its 2.4
billion pound fund, which has monthly redemptions, on March 18
because "the industry standard wording for all forthcoming ...
independent valuations for the Fund's underlying properties as
at 31 March 2020 will include a statement highlighting material
valuation uncertainty".

BlackRock said in an emailed statement it had suspended its
3.4 billion pound UK property fund on March 20 due to the
pricing uncertainty. The fund has quarterly redemptions.

Legal & General also said in a statement it had
suspended two more funds totalling more than 3.5 billion pounds
in assets under management on March 20, following the freezing
of its flagship UK property fund on March 18.

Royal London also froze its Royal London Property Fund,
which has monthly dealings and had just over 400 million pounds
in assets under management at the end of November according to
Morningstar, and its Royal London Property Trust, on March 31.

"Suspensions are one of several liquidity tools available to
fund managers to protect investors. Suspensions should only be
used where necessary and in order to protect investors, in line
with our applicable rules," a spokesman for Britain's Financial
Conduct Authority said.

($1 = 0.8049 pounds)
(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Simon Jessop and Mark
Potter)