REC staff

Non-Sterling Fund’s property allocation may be raised via indirect buys

The first property derivatives sector switch took place on the Eurex exchange this month. The two parties swapped all-industrial and all-offices returns. Jon Masters of bgc, the deal’s broker, said the trade was 15 lots of Calender 2012 contracts per side, making £1.5m in total. “We traded at level prices, of 2%: one counterparty sold […]

Cobb and Dobson rise at Aviva Aviva Commercial Finance has promoted Neil Dobson and Simeon Cobb to business managers, reporting to Adrian Poole. The move follows Steve Boyle’s and Graham Rouse’s departure to Legal & General’s new commercial property lending business. Wintle goes continental for GFM Giles Wintle has left GIC Real Estate to become […]

John Carrafiell’s GreenOak Real Estate is close to acquiring a piece of distressed US debt with an eye to taking control of the underlying asset, following a $150m first closing for its debut US fund earlier this year. GreenOak US is targeting 15- 20% returns by buying office, retail and hotel properties, as well as […]

Fund may cut its holding in business park operator by half in long term

Refinancings worth more than £1.3bn have taken place in the past eight weeks. One of the largest was Duet Private Equity’s and Deutsche Bank’s £375m debt package for the Mint hotel portfolio, recently acquired by Blackstone. Deutsche Bank provided around £300m of senior debt on a five-year term at more than 300bps over Libor and […]

British Land and Schroders are to repay half of the £500m debt outstanding in the REC Retail Parks securitisation, secured against assets in Hercules Unit Trust. HUT has signed a £350m, five-year loan, entirely underwritten by Aareal Bank. A £250m term loan will be used to repay half of the debt that expires in a […]

Real estate mezzanine, bridging finance and buy-to-let specialists Dragonfly Property Finance and Maslow Capital have merged. Dragonfly has acquired Maslow’s book of around 12 mezzanine loans, which was owned by a fund backed by its four partners and a group of wealthy private investors. But mezzanine and development loans will still be made under the […]

Howard de Walden estate also returns to US market with £147m issue

Mayfair Capital Investment Management’s higher risk capital growth fund has made a 25% return in 12 months on its first project. Mayfair Capital’s £12m MC Property Growth Fund 2 and partner Beaubridge made a £5m preferred equity investment in Liberty Properties’ luxury residential development, 2 Hyde Park Square, W2. The developer decided to exercise its […]