Lauren Parr
Aareal Bank’s announcement in February of its agreement to buy real estate lender WestImmo had been widely anticipated, with the consensus being a “thumbs up” on the deal, says one German-based adviser. “Analysts and market participants speak positively about the transaction, as Aareal got a good price and the footprint of both banks allows for high synergies,” he adds.
Aareal, headquartered in Wiesbaden, a handy 10 minutes across the Rhein from WestImmo, trumped private equity competitors, including Apollo Global Management, with a €350m offer. The vendor was bad bank Erste Abwicklungsanstalt, to which WestImmo was transferred by its parent company, West LB, in 2012.
The Spanish property market has been the apple of many a pan-European investor’s eye over the past year and with overseas capital piling in, foreign banks and lenders have followed their client base.
Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Citi, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank have been active, as have commercial banks such as ING, Aareal and BNP Paribas, along with non-bank lenders such as CPPIB, Blackstone Mortgage Trust and AXA.
This resurgence has been spurred by the deleveraging drive of Spain’s domestic banks, which has brought stock and non-performing loan portfolios to the market for hungry investors to buy and for their lenders to provide finance for.
Commerzbank has increased the size of a German non-performing real estate loan portfolio it is bringing to market in the latest disposal from its former Eurohypo business.
The bank is set to release the data tape containing loan and asset level data relating to the NPL portfolio to prospective bidders at the end of this week. It is expected to reveal a portfolio with an unpaid balance of between €900m and €1.1bn according to a source close to the bank.
Bayside Capital has secured financing from Nordea for its €107m joint venture purchase of a Finnish retail portfolio.
Bayside, a credit affiliate of HIG Capital, has drawn down the funds after recently completing the acquisition in partnership with Finnish private equity group Trevian Asset Management. The vendor was AXA Real Estate.
Big foreign investors are taking the plunge and getting in early on The Netherlands’ recovery
A widening range of lenders are returning to debt origination
Loan partly sold down to five investors
Helaba and Handelsbanken have teamed up provide £325m of refinancing for a UK retail portfolio held by a joint venture between British Land and Tesco. The German and Swedish banks, respectively, have each provided half of a new five-year term loan for Tesco BL Properties, secured against two retail parks, five shopping centres and four […]
Blackstone’s US-listed mortgage trust has made its first loan in Spain, following its recent entry into Continental European property lending. Blackstone Mortgage Trust has provided a €72m whole loan for US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts’ (KKR) purchase of two Spanish retail assets from British Land: Nassica, a 95,000 m2 retail and leisure centre […]
Beacon Capital Partners France has refinanced the country’s tallest office tower through a €600m refinancing package from pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, Aareal Bank and Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies. A maturing loan secured against First Tower in Paris’s La Défense business district, was replaced with €515m of senior debt and an €85m mezzanine loan. The 758 […]