Goldman Sachs lends £130m at 80% LTV on London offices

Goldman Sachs has provided Crescent Heights with a £130m acquisition facility for its £160m purchase of Vintners Place in the City of London.

The facility reflects a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of just over 80%, making it one of the largest, highly-leveraged loans in London this cycle.

Crescent Heights bought the eight-storey classical-style office block, which faces the River Thames at 68 Upper Thames Street, from Downtown Properties in July.

It is only the Miami-based developer’s second purchase in the UK following its £43m acquisition in 2009 of 98 Theobald’s Road, in London’s Midtown, from Land Securities.

It is better known in the US for its portfolio of more than 100 residential and commercial developments. Goldman Sachs is one of its long-term relationship lenders there.

The US investment bank’s £130m loan on a central London office block at more than 80% LTV is an aggressive move in the capital’s mature lending market.

It follows Lloyds Bank’s play last month to boost its LTV ratios by issuing whole loans. Lloyds provided a £147.5m whole loan to Bank of Montreal (BMO) Real Estate Partners for its £175m purchase of Parkgate shopping park in South Yorkshire.

That facility reflected an LTV of 85%. Lloyds sold the £35m junior tranche to US-lender Quadrant Real Estate Advisors and will syndicate a portion of the senior.

Goldman’s new facility to Crescent Heights could also be sold down with any mezzanine component chipped off and a proportion of the senior syndicated or securitised.