ING appoints Bravo to lead Iberian lending

ING Real Estate Finance (REF) has appointed Julián Bravo as the head of its Spanish and Portuguese division.

Bravo, who was previously a director in the team, has been promoted to succeed Wouter Mijnen, who led the Iberian business since May 2013 and who is relocating to Australia to become head of the Australian ING REF team.

Bravo joined ING REF in November 2013, following roles at HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, PwC and pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank.

ING’s REF team is integrated in the ING Wholesale Banking division in Spain & Portugal. The Dutch bank has proved to be a significant lender in the Spanish market in recent years. The Madrid-based operation uses Spanish funding and a local team and is regarded by many in the market as being among Spain’s domestic lenders.

In February, ING underwrote a €280 million loan to finance the purchase of the 60,142 square metre Torre Espacio in the ‘Cuatro Torres’ – ‘four towers’ – prime business area of Madrid. The tower was bought by the Philippines-based investor Andrew Tan last November from Grupo Villa Mir for €558 million. The seven-year loan was understood to have been priced between 150 and 200 basis points.