REC staff

Two recently unveiled funds are the first to tap a growing pensions sub-market, writes Jane Roberts FSA-approval, daily pricing, unit accumulation, high liquidity, low volatility: these are all desirable, if not essential for investors and managers of defined contribution pension schemes when they invest contributions. Such contributions are predicted to grow like topsy. Pensions consultant […]

London Business School event says it will take 10 years to clean balance sheets, writes Lauren Parr

Last week’s £175m convertible bond issue by REIT Derwent London shows that the best managements with the right assets still have a choice of finance raising options. Derwent’s issue was notable because UK property companies rarely use convertible bonds, but also for the low cost of the finance. With a 2.75% coupon, the five-year-dated, unsecured […]

More investors and fund managers are looking to use property derivatives to improve investment returns and are starting to compare its pricing regularly with their other options. The argument that derivatives can give fund managers a competitive advantage is gaining acceptance. Asset allocator converts, like UBS’s David Buckle, would even say the whole industry’s image […]

Royal Bank of Scotland has narrowed down the list of bidders for its £1.6bn UK property loanbook to Lone Star, Blackstone, Westbrook Partners and Starwood. Perella Weinberg and Morgan Stanley are believed to be among the up to 12 parties that expressed interest in the loans. Lazard is handling the sale for RBS, which now […]

Financing for big office deal and L&G swell new lending so far this year

Roger Barris’ company Peakside Capital has sold its majority stake in a Berlin residential complex, worth €24.5m. TAG Immobilien bought  the holding, which was held indirectly by the €261m Peakside Real Estate Fund I. The fund inherited the asset after a management buyout of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s European private equity real estate business […]

Nationwide’s commercial team has provided £33.2m of debt for Europa Capital’s and M7’s Real Estate Light Industrial Property Partnership joint venture. The five-year facility, at a 59% loan-to-value ratio, is secured against LIPP’s 10 UK industrial estates and will refinance £21.5m of debt with Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank, with £12m left for acquisitions. LIPP is already under […]

German asset manager Corpus Sireo is to transfer 16,000 homes it already manages to a new Asset Management Residential business. Stefan Korthals, previously head of portfolio management for the group’s residential real estate portfolio, will lead the business, with offices in Cologne, Berlin and Leipzig. It will provide portfolio and asset management services; and  sales and […]

Grainger has won a mandate to run a new distressed residential property platform for Lloyds – the first agreement of its type in the UK. The deal was secured by Grainger’s asset and property management team, led by Alex Greaves and Anish Thobhani, who will head the Grainger Residential Asset Management Platform. Grainger is thought […]