Irishman O'Hara and his colleague Daly will borrow on the back of the 110m equity to invest in retail property and other assets, mainly outside of London, through their investment vehicle, Tyburn Lane Private Equity.

A UK property source familiar with the firm said Tyburn would expect to gear up the fund to target at least £300m worth of assets. "It depends on the individual deals, but you would have thought that anything less than 75% leverage wouldn't be attractive, " the source said.

O'Hara and Daly have been busy since leaving Anglo, where both were involved in identifying suitable property investments for the bank's private clients. Tyburn, previously known as Anglo Irish Private Equity, raised £50m from investors, including Anglo Irish Bank, last year for its first equity fund, which was also invested in UK commercial property. Anglo put £15m into Tyburn's first fund.

It is understood that the other backers were largely private investors.

O'Hara and Daly specialise in asset management and seek property deals requiring active management, including, for example, properties with development potential.

Tyburn targets returns of around 12% per annum based on both rental yield and capital appreciation.

It seems investors are more than happy with Tyburn's performance to date. The second fund closed six weeks ahead of schedule and at least one of the main investors in the first fund has decided to roll the dice again.

Anglo is understood to have invested £15m in the second fund, which closed last week, backing its former employees to deliver returns for some of its legion property investors.