ING appoints Vreugdenhil as global head of real estate finance

ING group has appointed Annerie Vreugdenhil as its global head of real estate finance.

Vreugdenhil will replace John Boyles who is to become the bank’s global head of disintermediation and asset securitisation. She will begin her new role on 15 February 2016.

Vreugdenhil joined ING in 1992 and has held various positions in the Dutch bank’s commercial banking business. In 2006, she became head of corporate clients in the Netherlands and was appointed as head of commercial banking in the Netherlands in 2010, also becoming a board member of ING Netherlands.

Boyles had led ING’s Real Estate Finance division since 2013, prior to which he was president and chief executive officer of ING US.

ING had an active 2015 in the real estate finance market. In November, it partnered with Natixis to underwrite a €670 million loan to AEW Europe and China Investment Corporation to finance the purchase of the 221,000 square metre Celsius portfolio of French, Belgian and Dutch retail assets. Together with Natixis, ING sold down almost €300 million of the loan. Bank of China was brought in to take more than £200m, while China Construction Bank and ING’s NN Group account each took £50 million.

In October, ING and ABN AMRO provided a €240 million senior secured loan to Dutch investor Merin to finance its portfolio of office and industrial assets.

In the UK market, ING wrote a £170 million loan to Hong Kong-based businessman Hui Wing Mau to finance his purchase of the Christchurch Court office building near St Paul’s Cathedral. In December, Real Estate Capital revealed that ING had syndicated the loan, with Japanese bank Shinsei and Bank of China each taking a £40 million participation.