January 2012 Issue


    Month: January
    Year: 2012

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    Forum Partners sets sights on European distressed debt

    Opportunity fund manager raising capital to buy large non-performing real estate loan portfolios with £200m-£250m of equity per deal

    Draft lending guidelines to be launched

    Draft real estate lending guidelines centred on four best practice pillars – transaction structuring; documentation; due diligence; and intercreditor arrangements – have emerged from CREFC’s European lender committee, chaired by BNP Paribas’s Peter Dento. Based on a single advance, secured, investment loan with multiple properties, some of the key recommendations include that senior debt lenders […]

    View from IPF/SPR seminar: debt is where to look for opportunity in 2012

    UK commercial property values will head south and debt will be the big opportunity this year. At the Outlook for UK Property 2012 seminar, held jointly by the Investment Property Forum and the Society of Property Researchers, panelist Neil Parker, market strategist at RBS, forecast a recession in Continental economies, but the UK keeping positive […]

    NAMA loses head of lending Emmett

    Lending and corporate finance teams will now report to deputy head of portfolio management

    Merry Hill CMBS closes this month

    Deutsche Bank’s second new CMBS, secured against the Merry Hill regional mall in Dudley, is expected to close at the end of January. The £210m deal, a three-tranche securitisation of a five-year loan to Queensland Investment Corporation, has been marketed in the US as well as Europe. QIC owns 50% of the 1.7m sq ft […]

    Harin Thaker quits Pfandbriefbank after two decades

    Harin Thaker left Deutsche Pfandbriefbank this month after almost 20 years with the German mortgage bank. Thaker has worked for the bank since 1992 and is one of the best-known faces in UK property lending. He had been head of international property loan origination for the last six years and has resigned to look for […]

    Corestate buys more stressed assets

    Corestate Group has agreed to inject up to €10m of equity into the recapitalisation of a high-street portfolio comprised of 20 mixed-use properties across 16 German cities, valued at €55m. The bilateral bank financing was provided by one German senior lender and two junior Danish lenders, both of which are now covered by the Danish […]

    Banks refuse to offer stapled finance for portfolio sales

    BoAML report says practicalities of offloading debt are challenging

    Immeo 2 owner refinances €387m of German CMBS

    A Foncière des Régions’ subsidiary has refinanced a further €387m of its securitised debt in Germany with LBBW and Landesbank Berlin. French SIIC Foncière Développement Logements (FDL), which owns Immeo Wohnen, borrower to the €1.4bn Immeo Residential Finance No 2 CMBS, has secured a new 9.5-year facility at an average rate of 4%, secured against […]

    F&C UK Property Fund builds portfolio to £53m

    F&C REIT’s new open-ended income fund has grown to £53m of assets. F&C UK Property Fund was launched in June 2010 to take advantage of opportunities to buy in prevailing market conditions, often off-market and sometimes from sellers under pressure from banks. The fund controls inflows to match property it hopes to buy and has […]

    Hodes Weill forms London office with Field and Lemer

    Niche US property placement agent Hodes Weill is expanding into Europe and will open a London office this month. The office will be run by Dominic Field, who left Grosvenor Fund Management late last year, and Eric Lemer. The expansion reunites Field and Lemer with David Hodes, Doug Weill and Susan Swanezy, who worked together […]

    €37.4bn of securitised loans falling due in next two years

    2012 sees record €13bn of maturities, inflating mountain of problem loans

    Heidtmann to head Grosvenor’s client services in Europe

    Grosvenor Fund Management has hired former Morgan Stanley capital raiser Dietrich Heidtmann as managing director of client services in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Heidt mann will be based in Paris, reporting to chief investment officer James Raynor. Grosvenor raised three new pools of capital last year. The largest was Grosvenor Retail Partnership, a […]

    AXA attracts another €211m for Development Venture III

    Fund has total €588m cash, with 75% committed in four developments AXA Real Estate Investment Managers raised a further €211m of equity at the final close of its third European development fund. After a €230m first close in 2010 followed by a second close early in 2011, the investment manager has raised a total €588m […]

    ASR’s first close for retail fund raises €380m

    Dutch insurance group ASR has attracted €380m in a first close for a Dutch retail fund seeded with the group’s assets. Advised by CBRE’s European placement team, ASR Real Estate Investment Management has brought in three European institutional investors as co-investors in an oversubscribed capital raise. The fund’s €1.1bn portfolio comprises supermarkets, shops and shopping […]

    Aviva provides £120m for Covent Garden portfolio and £184m for UPP university deal

    West End specialist Shaftesbury and the Mercers’ Company have refinanced their Covent Garden portfolio with £120m of long-term debt from Aviva Commercial Finance. The pair’s Longmartin Properties joint venture was set up in 2005 to redevelop 2 acres north of Long Acre. The St Martins Courtyard development of 23 shops, eight restaurants, 102,000 sq ft […]

    Further challenges for ‘tough’ 2012

    JLL predicts occupiers will delay decisions in economy set to be“flat at best” in first half of year

    London investment reaches £10.9bn for last year

    Central London investment volumes edged up 10% to £10.9bn in 2011, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s figures. In total, £4.5bn was transacted in 139 deals in the West End and £6.3bn in 108 in the City and Docklands, driven by continued high demand from international investors. Clive Bull, head of central London investment, said: “In […]

    View ahead is crystal clear: debt is the problem – and opportunity

    The start of a new year is traditionally a time for crystal-balling the year ahead. Real Estate Capital and Barclays got together with four of the UK’s leading CEOs – David Atkins, Chris Grigg, Nick Leslau and Jamie Ritblat – to discuss what they think the big issues will be in 2012. From what they […]

    2012 Predictions: Top investors gather to look at the opportunities ahead

    Analysis To kick off the new year, Real Estate Capital and Barclays Real Estate hosted a round table with some of UK property’s leading investors. The discussion ranged across asset pricing, development risk, residential build-to-let, finance and buying debt. The verdict? There are opportunities out there but the panel remain cautious and recovery will be […]

    Learning from the crisis will foster new fund products

    PricewaterhouseCoopers reports for AREF on the ongoing fallout from 2008, writes Jane Roberts

    Brookfield gets serious about building London portfolio

    Canadian investor has “significant war chest” ready for UK opportunities, writes Jane Roberts

    Derivatives: Expectations of 14.5% fall in capital values by December 2015

    All sectors except offices ended last year in negative growth territory – and even offices are feeling the squeeze.

    Capital into UK property: 2011 failed to make good on expectations of optimistic first half

    2011 failed to make good on expectations of optimistic first half

    GRAND drama as €5.8bn deal comes up for refinancing

    Lauren Parr reports on the challenges of restructuring Guy Hands’ German multifamily monolith

    Debt restructuring: Banks turn up the heat as economic prospects weaken

    Restructuring deals and loan sales on the rise as banks drop “extend and pretend”, says Lauren Parr

    CREFC forms group to help with intercreditor problems

    Working party of 10-12 to be led by Christian Lambie and Charles Roberts