February 2012 Issue

The future of troubled Dutch property company Uni-Invest will be decided on 17 April, when noteholders who control the company vote on two proposals. Depending on the outcome, either Valad Europe or Patron Capital with TPG will be managing the portfolio of 220 secondary Dutch industrial and office assets which were securitised in the Opera […]

Barcelona outlet village set for expansion after Value Retail arranges refinancing of €91m loan

Long-term savers around the globe have enjoyed the positive contribution to diversification that income-producing property can bring to multi-asset portfolios. The fact that direct property is relatively illiquid is not a problem for long-term investors and this risk is usually controlled by maintaining a modest 5-10% long-term weighting. In the past 10-15 years, one trend […]

With expected value falls already priced into contracts, trading has been weak, but may pick up if total returns fall below 0%

After a slow start and a lot of frustration in 2008/09, in the past 18 months Catalyst Capital has pulled off a string of deals for its first fund and made plans for a second. Jane Roberts reports

Emerging Trends report suggests new lenders are unlikely to plug funding gap, writes Alex Catalano Europe’s property doyens are expecting a lost year. Emerging Trends Real Estate Europe 2012, the annual pulse-taking conducted by Urban Land Institute and Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, found that financiers, fund managers, occupiers, investors and developers alike think that sitting on their hands […]

Capital is targeting the €24bn of property in frozen and liquidating German open-ended funds, but the shrinking sector is struggling to dispose of assets at book value, reports Lauren Parr

With the Euro crisis spooking investors,  the volume of European deals has slowed markedly in the past few months. However, unlike the meltdown of 2008-09, the commercial real estate market has not frozen yet; at €129.5bn, deal volumes last year were 8% up on 2010. “Investors don’t like uncertainty and there’s no doubt that is […]

Regulatory and economic pressures make banks slow to decide 2012 targets, reports Lauren Parr

Schroders sees potential in property investment trusts to broaden offering, writes Jane Roberts

US private equity firm will take pick from package of Lehman property debt, writes James Wallace

Can a core fund be more highly geared than an opportunity fund? In the past, probably not. But the developments and distressed assets opportunity funds have bought – and the next generation expects to buyoften cannot get debt funding. But banks will still lend on core assets. One manager that runs opportunity and core strategies […]

Have you noticed how the adjective ‘toxic’ is no longer constantly paired with the noun ‘debt’? With so little new lending around, we’ve gone from being poisoned by the stuff to starving from lack of it. For a reminder of why debt was always toxic in 2008, see James Wallace’s article on Excalibur, the €3bn […]

Internos Real Investors has won a second mandate, from fund manager Invista REIM. Kaupthing Bank appointed Internos to manage the €90m Celsius portfolio and maximise value for bank shareholders after taking over the French assets from the original joint-venture partners, Invista and PropInvest. Internos has also taken on the six-strong French team that manages the […]

Iain Reid, who sold Protego Real Estate Investors to Cornerstone in 2010 along with co-managers Charles Weeks, Hugo Llewellyn and backer Smedvig Capital, will leave next month after a two-year lock-in period ends. Weeks has succeeded Reid as European CEO; Llewellyn left last year to set up Newcore Capital Management. Since buying Protego, US group […]

Aberdeen Asset Management has launched another pan-European fund of funds, with an €85m investment from the Employees Retirement System of Texas. Aberdeen’s head of property multi-manager, Jon Lekander, said the indirect mandate “is structured around a fund of funds that can also take in other capital. We have some potential interest, but it’s early days.” […]

Acquisition of local manager doubles German assets managed to €1bn

M&G Investments’ appointment of Alex Jeffrey as head of PRUPIM signals an international push for the UK insurance giant. Jeffrey has an international private equity real estate background at MGPA, while the majority of PRUPIM’s £15bn under management is retail and life fund money invested in the UK in mainly core strategies. M&G chief executive […]

Formulas confirm smaller capital charge for debt than direct proper

The UK’s Financial Services Authority is the first local European regulator to set out its approach to implementing the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD). The Association of Real Estate Funds and INREV plan to co-ordinate a response to the 100-page paper on behalf of property fund managers and investors, by the 23 March 2012 […]

Zehner takes on new JLL role                                                                                 Jon Zehner is joining LaSalle Investment Manage-ment next month in a new role as head of global capital markets. He will work with global CEO Jeff Jacobson and be a member of the global management committee. Zehner was previously at AREA Property Partners. Goldsworthy joins US investor                                                                     Former HSBC […]

Tesco has used its covenant and supermarkets to raise another £450m via its fifth CMBS issue in the past three years. The 30-year credit-linked bonds are secured on 11 stores, one of which is in development. The bonds are underpinned by rents from Tesco and supported by Tesco’s corporate guarantee, and were rated A- by […]

Holiday villages back £1bn issue to refinance debt set to mature in 2013.

The bonds in a European CMBS have defaulted for the first time, with more examples likely to follow this year. The €521.8m Opera Finance Uni-Invest deal earned the dubious distinction of being the first bonds to default when the deal reached legal final maturity on 15 February without repaying. The class A noteholders declared a […]

Citigroup has arranged the first offshore loan for Malaysia’s Employee Provident Fund (EPF). The £300m recourse facility is secured on three UK properties worth £490m that the pension fund has bought since starting to  invest in Europe in 2010. They are: 65 Fleet Street, EC4 let to Freshfield; 40 Portman Square, W1; and the Sheldon […]

LNR Partners and Capita plan to expand beyond servicing and asset management in Europe, to work with banks and debt investors. LNR, which owns loan servicer Hatfield Philips, has won its first mandate of this nature in Europe, to jointly advise Hatfield Philips on the Four Seasons care home CMBS restructuring, with Brookland Partners. Last September […]

More banks join LandSec club Citigroup, Santander and UBS have joined RBS, Lloyds and HSBC in signing up to Land Securities’ £1.05bn revolving credit facility. LandSec has yet to  close the facility and may bring in more banks. The REIT said the debt’s headline margin is 120 basis points over Libor. Pfandbriefbank backs Circle Deutsche […]

Cushman & Wakefield has beefed up its corporate finance division, hiring Federico Montero from KPMG as a partner in the debt advisory team. Montero is the first appointment since Mike Lindsay joined last year as head of Europe, Middle East and Africa corporate finance, also from KPMG, where he had been head of real estate. […]

Rise in distressed deals prompts managers’ return to fund raising trail

Aviva’s global recapitalisation fund of funds has agreed a second deal. John Gellatly, head of Aviva’s European multi manager business, said the investment would be to finance the 50-65% tranche of debt for a partly prelet European development. Aviva Investors Real Estate Capital Partners raised $93.6m at its first closing in December 2010. Its first […]

Santander has restructured its property derivatives trading desk and made Andrew Fenlon’s post of head of property derivatives redundant. Helen Dixon will continue to cover property derivatives at the bank. Property derivative volumes improved in the final quarter of last year. There were £276m of All Property swaps in 79 trades, plus a further 15 […]

Performing loans disposal is up next after ongoing French debt sale

Long track record in core retail puts Henderson Global Investors in pole position to advise biggest Australian fund on European investment debut

Aareal Bank is expecting a  “very challenging” 2012, with lacklustre economic growth in Europe and pressure on real estate prices. The bank’s chiefs predicted  that they will carry out less real estate business in this year’s “volatile and uncertain environment”, at €4.5bn-€5.5bn, compared with €8bn of property lending last year. Last year, Aareal’s structured property […]