Canada’s Timbercreek launches Irish lending business

Canadian property investment firm Timbercreek Asset Management has launched an Irish commercial property business, with Paul Roddy, formerly of Hudson Advisors and IBRC, leading the platform.

Canadian property investment firm Timbercreek Asset Management has launched an Irish commercial property business, with Paul Roddy, formerly of Hudson Advisors and IBRC, leading the platform.

Paul Roddy

The firm has an initial €200 million to lend against investment properties. It is targeting loans of between €1 million and €50 million to sectors including offices, retail, industrial, rental apartments, student accommodation and hotels. The firm said that it will look at opportunities in Dublin as well as regional Ireland, offering “flexible structuring, higher leverage and speed of decision-making”, with loans from 12 months to five years, with flexibility on pre-payment.

Timbercreek co-invests and manages capital on behalf of Canadian institutional investors and pension funds, and said that it has the ability to expand lending capacity further to meet demand.

Roddy is building an initial team of four people to run the business from offices in Dublin. “Our plan is to replicate in Ireland Timbercreek’s North American success in supporting property investors with mid-sized commercial property loans, who are currently underserved by the traditional banking sector,” Roddy said.

“Timbercreek’s philosophy is to build long-term relationships with customers and to deliver them a flexible service based on quick decision making and execution. We are establishing ourselves as a long-term lender to the Irish market, with the ability to recycle capital back into new loans,” he added.

Timbercreek has been investing in real estate for 10 years and has done €4 billion of commercial property lending, in Canada, the US and UK.

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