REC staff

Bank vows to lend at same rate as last year but to cut total asset volumes

INREV launched a fund style classification guide at MIPIM this month, to mixed reviews. The guide sorts funds into core, value-added and opportunity categories and will be used for all new funds in INREV’s quarterly index. Previously, fund managers “self-declared” the style of their products. INREV said its approach was based on the notion that […]

Field test shows insurers have capital to meet new reserve requirements European insurers have enough capital to meet new solvency rules, according to the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, which last week published the results of Quantitative Impact Study 5. QIS5 is a field test of the Solvency II rules that European insurers will […]

Private equity firm GI Partners has bought a €214m performing loan book backed by housing in the Netherlands. The deal follows Apollo’s purchase of a portfolio of distressed residential loans from Merrill Lynch last year. GI Partners injected most of the equity via a joint venture with Dutch asset manager Principal Company. Natixis structured a […]

Begor to head GE’s property arm GE Capital has appointed Mark Begor as head of its commercial real estate division. He comes from the group’s US consumer retail finance business and will replace Ron Pressman as president and chief executive of GE Capital Real Estate. Bate moves to Mayfair Investment manager Mayfair Capital has appointed […]

Resolution Property has still to spend half of the €808m equity raised for its Resolution Real Estate Fund III in late 2007. It announced at MIPIM that the rest of the €400m cash from the eight-year, closed-ended fund would be allocated to potentially stalled developments. Resolution says that with 60% gearing it could unlock up to €1bn […]

German group favours home market first, as other insurers look to lend

The Situs Companies’ European boss has left the group after six years to set up Castor Capital, an adviser to buyers and sellers of direct property and real estate debt in the UK and Germany. It will also help to refinance existing portfolios using debt capital market instruments. Nicolaus Harnack helped build Situs’s European business, […]

AREA Property Partners has sold a 35%, non-controlling stake in the private equity real estate business to nabInvest, the direct asset management group of National Australia Bank. The deal gives AREA balance-sheet strength to raise more funds and pursue acquisitions. It will also bring more international coverage, given that NAB’s institutional distribution capabilities are based […]

Jones Lang LaSalle’s latest 2011 lending survey says greater liquidity in the UK lending market has failed to materialise. City investment director Andrew Hawkins said: “A year ago we predicted greater liquidity than we are now experiencing and the outlook is challenging.” The survey’s findings were: Refinancing will continue to account for 50% of banks’  […]