A recent revaluation of a property fund that now owns three Superquinn supermarket sites around Dublin has led to further sharp losses this year, despite the fact that is sold off one of its sites at a profit.

Friends First said it informed its investment intermediaries on Thursday that private investors who bought into its so-called Corinthian Property Fund would see a fall of 46% in the fund's value when new figures were published later this week.

The Corinthian Property Fund, which owned four Superquinn supermarkets in Bray, Walkinstown, Finglas, and Naas, showed the greatest drop in value of any Irish regulated property fund this year, according to the Moneymate tables.

The fund now owns only three Superquinn sites, after it sold a Naas, Co Kildare, site to Penneys owner Primark in recent weeks. The discount fashion retailer is expected to develop a major new shop on the site at North Main Street.

Brian O'Neill at Friends First said he was confident that the Corinthian fund would show a profit for investors over the five or seven years that it can trade.

The falls to date reflected the "unusual economic times" and the large acquisition costs that a start-up property fund faced in its first year, he said.

The Corinthian prospectus last year raised €27.5m from private investors, including small investors paying in as little as €15,000 each, to purchase the sites and the rent roll of four Superquinn sites from the retailer's owner Select Retail Holdings.

Including €10m in acquisition costs, the fund paid a total of €91m to acquire the sites.

The fall in value for a high-profile regulated fund throws light on the scale of the large losses of other unregulated funds that attracted investor money so as to buy undeveloped sites.

O'Neill said other Friends First property funds that invest in office and retail sites in France and the Netherlands had risen in value.