The Bank of Scotland has cut off future funding for a real estate investment fund that attracted the backing of Sir Alex Ferguson and is advised by Sir David Frost.

Symmetry, the bank's joint venture with aAIM Group, a fund manager, had a £200 million funding facility with Bank of Scotland Corporate. The relationship was cemented in September 2006 at the height of the property boom.

Banking sources said that the decision to stop funding had been taken jointly by aAIM and the bank last week.

The development inevitably will put the brakes on aAIM's spending plans. It had hoped to expand its £2 billion European Symmetry fund to £4 billion. It will also deliver a blow to aAIM's proposed £2 billion infrastructure fund, for which aAIM had planned to draw down money from the Symmetry fund, and aAIM India, a fund that aAIM had planned toincrease to £1 billion of property under management.

The termination of the agreement is not thought to affect assets already in the hands of the joint venture. Additionally, it will not affect aAIM's debt position, which is long-dated and not thought to be close to breaching its loan-to-value covenant.

The aAIM venture historically has supplemented its bank finance with funds from celebrities, including Sir Alex, the manager of Manchester United, and Sir David, the television presenter. It suffered a high-profile departure this year when Robert Whitton, its former chief executive and one of the founding investors, left to form ROM Capital, his own property investor. Mr Whitton's departure was followed by that of Colin Rowlinson, chief operating officer, who left last week to join GI Partners, a private equity group.

The joint venture has invested in Western and Eastern Europe, acquiring a large retail portfolio in Germany for £540 million and a £290 million shopping centre in Hungary, deals completed before the credit crunch hit. It also bought car showrooms and hotels. In recent weeks aAIM has been linked to a consortium trying to complete a £1.4 billion buyout of Trillium, Land Securities' property management business. Talks with the consortium, which included PCP Capital Partners and the Qatari Investment Authority, collapsed last month.

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