March 2014 Issue

IPF-sponsored report A Vision for Real Estate Finance in the UK, published in October, is a well argued, succinct document that makes seven draft recommendations. The Bank of England is giving attention to the fourth, that “regulatory capital requirements for CRE lending should be linked to a property’s long-term, sustainable loan-to-value ratio, rather than current […]

Real Estate Capital commentary Bank of America Merrill Lynch underwrote February’s largest loan, €935m for Lone Star’s acquisition of Coeur Défense in Paris. The US bank intends to distribute all but €100m and has sold down €318m to AXA’s debt arm. German insurance companies were active senior lenders, targeting domestic shopping centres. Allianz lent on […]

UK market overview Average secondary market pricing across all UK sectors has continued to improve, moving a further 0.76% closer to net asset value in January, to an average of -0.97%, writes Ashley Marks. IPD’s 2013 UK Quarterly Property Index showed a 4.3% capital return for the year. Unlisted funds did better, the JLL Balanced […]

GE Capital Real Estate’s ambitions to be a leading property lender rather than owner took a leap  forward late last year with its purchase of Postbank’s £1.4bn UK loan book, writes Jane Roberts GE Capital is proof that giant corporations can be as nimble as smaller specialists, when they see the right opportunity. The division […]

Parts of the Dutch market are in severe distress: the Netherlands endured a banking crisis and has been shunned by its large pension fund investors, while there is a lot of oversupply outside the prime office and retail districts, writes Lauren Parr. “There is potential to secure attractive yields in one of Europe’s most flexible […]

A dip in 2013 deal volumes belies foreign investors’ keen interest in France, reports Jane Roberts France was the only western European country where investment volumes fell last year. The 7% decline, to €18.4bn, was led by the Paris office market, where levels fell 13%, according to Real Capital Analytics. Overall, including other sectors, Paris […]

The big opportunity funds are targeting Spain, Ireland and the UK this year, writes Lauren Parr Fundraising for opportunistic real estate investing has recovered strongly over the past six to 12 months, with Europe now offering greater opportunities than the US, which has staged a rapid recovery and is largely where the capital is flowing […]

China’s Greenland joins string of Asian players backing residential projects, writes Doug Morrison There were no half measures or tentative, joint venture hand-holding earlier this year when Shanghai-based Greenland Group made its entry to the UK property market with the acquisition of the Ram Brewery development site in south-west London. At the January signing ceremony, […]

UK was main winner as US and Asian investment in Europe surged in 2013, reports Jane Roberts

After four years of covering other people’s deals, Real Estate Publishing completed its own in February. Real Estate Capital will continue to be put together by the same team, but we have joined PEI Media Group’s portfolio of print and digital publications. PEI specialises in real estate, private equity, private debt and infrastructure, and we […]

Last October a self-appointed, Investment Property Forum-sponsored group published A Vision for Real Estate Finance in the UK, to stimulate discussion and make recommendations for a market structure and regulatory regime to protect the financial markets against property cycles. The report, with seven draft recommendations, is being expanded and rewritten to take account of initial […]

Mike Clarke is joining CBRE Global Investors next month as European head of investor services, taking on the role following Giles King’s departure. Based in London, he will join the EMEA management board, and starts on 24 March. Clarke was responsible for product development and equity raising at Schroder Property, before joining US multi manager Mesirow, […]

Royal Bank of Scotland Corporate & Institutional Banking has written more than £200m of corporate loans this year for long-standing clients. The biggest is a £125m refinancing facility for Evans Property Group’s subsidiary Evans Management. It will be put to use refurbishing an office and building a hotel in Leeds; extending holiday parks in the […]

Aberdeen buys Regent portfolio for new fund, as riskier Carnaby portfolio also changes hands

Development bridging loan follows £124m UNITE facility late last year

London-based DRC Capital’s second mezzanine fund made two more loans last month, both German refinancings. European Real Estate Debt II advanced a €16.2m mezzanine facility as part of a circa five-year, €71.2m refinancing of six  department stores in western German city centres, let to the Metro Group subsidiary Kaufhof. The fund also provided Evans Randall […]

ING has financed the purchase of two Dutch offices for Merin, the Patron Capital and TPG-owned property firm formerly known as Uni-Invest. The Dutch bank provided a conservative, five-year loan at a sub-50% loan-to-value ratio for the purchase of the 16,296m² Röntgenlaan 75 in Zoetermeer and the 11,525m² 159 Flight Forum in Eindhoven, both let […]

The Commercial Real Estate Finance Council Europe is holding a European CMBS seminar this week. Speakers including Clive Bull, a director at Deutsche Bank,  which led the re-opening of the UK and German CMBS markets, and investors from PIMCO and HSBC Asset Management, will discuss appetite for new deals and whether there is enough collateral […]

Bank of Ireland has won the mandate to finance Hines’ and HSBC Alternative Investments’ €253m acquisition of a majority stake in Dublin’s Liffe Valley. Several non-bank lenders, thought to include Allianz and M&G, also quoted terms to finance the 500,000 sq ft regional mall, as did at least two investment banks, including Bank of America […]

Rising values lead manager to sell German, Polish and French assets, many held for just two years Tristan Capital Partners is selling 14 logistics assets to Segro and PSP for €472m –  the four-year-old, pan-European manager’s largest deal. The sale, which comes less than three years after most of the assets were acquired, is  also […]

Kennedy Wilson’s newly floated European fund is to continue the company’s successful real estate strategy of buying debt and equity investments in Ireland, Spain and the UK. The US company raised £910m from mostly US investors in a larger-than-expected initial public offering on 25 February. The fund is acquiring two seed portfolios of UK assets, valued […]

Mall specialist’s third bond issue in a year raises funds for development

HSBC and BNP Paribas are leading a consortium of six banks in a £665m refinancing of Capital & Counties’ £1.15bn Covent Garden estate. RBS, Santander, Credit Agricole and Wells Fargo are also part of the club. The five-year, unsecured, revolving credit facility has a margin of 1.65%. It replaces £480m of debt across three, secured […]

La Francaise takes on CWI team Cushman & Wakefield Investors’ European investment manage-ment team have become La Francaise Forum after Forum and La Francaise bought them. CWI chief executives David Rendall and Jens Gottler and their team will continue to manage the business, including the PURetail Fund. C&W said it was “not the right time […]

Ulster Bank has instructed Eastdil Secured to find a buyer for an €846m Irish and UK commercial real estate loan portfolio called Project Button. The book comprises both performing and non-performing whole and syndicated loans, which RBS’s Northern Irish subsidiary issued to six borrowers. They are secured against 1.4m sq ft of retail and 400,000 sq […]

Venn Partners is seeking to refinance a €500m portfolio of Dutch residential mortgages it bought from GE Capital’s Artesia Bank through the Dutch RMBS market. The company aims to sell down the performing loans as bonds to European banks, insurers and credit funds in an RMBS transaction called Cartesian. It will replicate this model to fund […]

Fellow US private equity firm TPG is also capital raising for Europe fund Bayside Capital plans to launch its first dedicated real estate opportunities fund for Europe in the next three or four months. The $500m-plus vehicle will target real estate bricks-and-mortar assets, loan portfolios and direct lending across the industrial, residential, office and hotel […]

Research probes relationship between property returns and gilt yields

US lender builds UK presence by taking big position in £2bn loan-on-loan financing for Lone Star’s purchase of projects Rock and Salt from IBRC US bank Wells Fargo has established itself as a force in UK lending by taking a £700m-plus share of a £2bn loan made to Lone Star. Lone Star chose to bring […]