REC staff
UK stocks took the lion’s share of the £7.8bn of equity raised in Europe Quoted property companies around the globe raised £40bn of equity, and £14bn of debt in the capital markets, in 2009. Data from Macquarie’s property securities analysts shows the extent to which shareholders were prepared to support the sector this year: £34bn […]
The Pre-Budget report on 9 December disappointed REIT finance directors by failing to relax the requirement to pay cash dividends. The British Property Federation had lobbied for scrip dividends (shares) to count towards the minimum 90% income distribution REITs are required to make. Deloitte REIT expert Phil Nicklin said: “It’s disappointing that government hasn’t done […]
REIT Workspace has written down its £166m joint venture Workspace Glebe and restructured the company with lender Lloyds Banking Group’s HBOS. The small office specialist is buying the 50% it does not own from Glebe Two’s liquidators for £1 and injecting £15m of equity raised from shareholders. HBOS is cutting the debt from £134m to […]
Nick Cooper, head of ING’s property multi-manager business, said he has ‘no plans yet’ for his next move after quitting ING Real Estate Select at the end of this month. Cooper decided not to move to ING’s Hague HQ as part of an internal reorganisation. ING plans to hive off its real estate management business […]
US pension fund acts after property portfolio’s value falls from $17.6bn to $13.5bn in six months
MGPA has bought residential land assembly company Land Investment Holdings in its first UK deal for several years. The company was put up for sale in February. The price values the business at £87m and was bid up by competition from a second real estate private equity bidder, Carlyle Group. MGPA is paying £52.5m in […]
A large slice of RBS’s transferred loans are due for repayment in 2009 Three quarters of Royal Bank of Scotland’s £91bn commercial property loan book has problems, according to data published this month detailing loans RBS has put into the Asset Protection Scheme. The Treasury says all of RBS’s 56,650 of transferred real estate loans, […]
Recovery starts with £200m Aviva Investors raised £200m in a first closing on 27 November for the Aviva UK Recovery Fund, a diversified, ungeared, five-year vehicle. Contributions to the fund included £65m from Aviva multi-manager clients, as well as UK pension funds. Aviva said it was considering a second closing with existing interest. Eurohypo gives […]
Several investors and banks are trying to buy the entire White Tower London office portfolio from its special servicer, CB Richard Ellis Loan Servicing. CBRELS said last month in a note to investors in the £1.15bn securitisation secured on the properties, that it expected to sell the nine assets ‘piecemeal’ between now and the end […]
Liberty International is expected to complete its refinancing of Lakeside shopping centre as early as January. The regional shopping centre specialist said last month that it was “engaged in positive discussions with a number of lenders” about refinancing the Opera Lakeside CMBS deal. Sources believe the company has agreed seven-year bank financing rather than a […]