FUNDRAISING OF THE YEAR: EUROPE

WINNER: LaSalle Investment Management for LaSalle Real Estate Debt Strategies IV
SECOND PLACE: BentallGreenOak for GreenOak Europe Secured Lending Fund II
THIRD PLACE: Octopus Real Estate for Commercial Real Estate Debt Fund III

In November 2021, LaSalle announced the final close of the latest in its flagship high-yielding debt fund series. LaSalle Real Estate Debt Strategies IV closed on €1.1 billion, inclusive of sidecar commitments in closing at the time. Commitments came from investors based in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific – some repeat investors in the series, and some newcomers. The fundraise demonstrated the strength of investor demand for real estate debt.

 

INVESTMENT FINANCING DEAL OF THE YEAR: EUROPE

WINNER: Starwood Capital, Apollo Global Management, Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies (lenders), Blackstone (borrower) for the Bourne Leisure acquisition financing, UK
SECOND PLACE: Apollo Global Management (lender), Henderson Park (borrower) for the financing of Henderson Park’s acquisition of a UK and Irish Hilton hotels portfolio
THIRD PLACE: Standard Chartered Bank, Société Générale (lenders), Mapletree Europe Income Trust (borrower) for the financing of Mapletree’s pan-European office portfolio acquisition

The covid pandemic shut down leisure travel, but in February 2021, US manager Blackstone took a bet on the revival of the UK domestic holiday market when it closed the purchase of Bourne Leisure for a reported circa £3 billion (€3.6 billion). Bourne operates through three brands: Butlin’s, an historic holiday resorts business; Haven, a holiday camps business; and Warner Leisure Hotels. Starwood, Apollo and BREDS provided £1.8 billion (€2.1 billion) to support the deal. Starwood underwrote the loan and retained a £720 million slice of it. The debt fund lenders structured the deal as a hybrid corporate/real estate loan.

 

DEVELOPMENT FINANCING DEAL OF THE YEAR: EUROPE

WINNER: Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies (lender), Brookfield (borrower), for One Leadenhall, London, UK
SECOND PLACE: Cain International (lender), Barings, LBS Properties (borrowers) for 135 Park Street development, London, UK
THIRD PLACE: Deutsche Hypo, ERGO Group, DZ HYP, Volksbank, DWS (lenders), Aggregate Holding (borrower) for Quartier Heidestrasse, Berlin, Germany

Although the pandemic sparked conversations about the future of the office, Brookfield had enough faith in the City of London’s appeal to office occupiers to press ahead with the development of a 35-storey, 430,000-square-foot office tower adjacent to the historic Leadenhall Market. One Leadenhall, designed by architect Make, is targeting BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and WELL ‘Platinum’ accreditations. In February, Blackstone’s property lending business, BREDS, backed the scheme with a £426 million (€505 million) loan in one of the largest development financing deals in the UK capital since the onset of the pandemic.

 

FINANCING DEAL OF THE YEAR: UK

WINNER: AXA IM – Alts, Crédit Agricole CIB, DBS Bank (lenders), British Land, GIC (borrowers) for 100 Liverpool Street financing, London, UK
SECOND PLACE: M&G Investments (lender), Sun Venture (borrower) for 1 & 2 New Ludgate, London, UK
THIRD PLACE: Bank of America, Morgan Stanley (lenders), Brookfield (borrower) for Agora Securities UK 2021 DAC

On behalf of the Broadgate REIT, a JV owned by UK property company British Land and Singapore’s GIC, the banks, alongside manager AXA IM – Alts, arranged a £420 million (€498 million) green senior secured five-year loan, with associated green hedging, to finance 100 Liverpool Street in London – a 520,000-square-foot net-zero carbon, mixed-use office and retail property located on the Broadgate Campus, adjacent to Liverpool Street Station.

 

FINANCING DEAL OF THE YEAR: GERMANY

WINNER: pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank, LBBW (lenders), maincubes (borrower) for Frankfurt data centre development financing
SECOND PLACE: Apollo Global Management (lender), Tristan Capital Partners (borrower) for the acquisition financing of Summit’s German portfolio
THIRD PLACE: FAP Group, Collector Bank, Signal Iduna, Donner & Reuschel (lenders), Rosa-Alscher Gruppe (borrower) for the financing of the ZAM project, Munich, Germany

In October, the two German banks wrote a development loan in the burgeoning data centre market. The €150 million facility, split equally between pbb and LBBW, was provided to maincubes, a data centre operator that is part of German investor and developer Art-Invest Real Estate. It finances the construction of a four-storey data centre in Frankfurt, scheduled for completion in 2023, which will provide 75,000 square feet of lettable space.

 

FINANCING DEAL OF THE YEAR: FRANCE

WINNER: Cheyne Capital (lender), Lone Star Funds (borrower) for the acquisition financing of GreenCity Immobilier, France
SECOND PLACE: Crédit Agricole CIB, Natixis, Société Générale (lenders), Primonial REIM, EDF Invest, La Française AM (borrowers) for the acquisition financing of the SHIFT building, Paris, France
THIRD PLACE: Allianz Real Estate (lender), JPMorgan Asset Management, Altarea Cogedim (borrowers) for the ‘Dove’ portfolio financing, Paris, France

Cheyne, recognised as Alternative Lender of the Year in France, also scooped the French financing deal of the year award. The deal saw the manager provide €81.5 million to US private equity firm Lone Star to fund its acquisition of Toulouse-based residential developer GreenCity Immobilier, alongside the company’s management. The loan was Cheyne’s debut in the French residential development market.

 

FINANCING DEAL OF THE YEAR: SOUTHERN EUROPE

WINNER: Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies (lender), Brookfield (borrower), for the financing of Brookfield’s acquisition of Selenta hotel platform, Spain
SECOND PLACE: Crédit Agricole CIB (lender), Tishman Speyer (borrower), for the acquisition financing of the Kube office building, Lisbon, Portugal
THIRD PLACE: DRC Savills Investment Management (lender), private Italian company (borrower), for the refinancing of the Four Seasons Hotel, Milan, Italy

Brookfield undertook one of Southern Europe’s standout hospitality transactions of 2021 in August, when it closed the €440 million acquisition of the management group of Spanish hotel chain Selenta and four of the group’s five hotels, located in Tenerife, Marbella and Barcelona. Blackstone’s real estate lending division provided a €360 million loan to fund the transaction and to provide capital for the refurbishment of the properties.

 

SUSTAINABLE FINANCING DEAL OF THE YEAR: EUROPE

WINNER: Crédit Agricole CIB, Caisse d´Epargne Île-de-France, HSBC Continental Europe (lenders), Cronos (borrower), for Cronos’s sustainable mortgage facility
SECOND PLACE: HSBC, NatWest, RBC Capital Partners (lenders), Unite Students (borrower), for Unite’s sustainability linked RCF
THIRD PLACE: Allianz Real Estate, BNP Paribas Real Estate (lenders), Icawood (borrower), for the green financing of Icawood’s Paris redevelopment

In January 2021, Cronos – a real estate investment and development company formed by French insurers In’li and AXA Investment Management – became the first European property investment firm to be 100 percent financed by a sustainable mortgage loan, according to Crédit Agricole, one of its lenders. Crédit Agricole CIB, Caisse d´Epargne Île-de-France and HSBC Continental Europe played key roles in the €800 million loan, which will be used to purchase residential properties in the Paris area that observe eligibility criteria in terms of affordable rents, target population and energy efficiency. In total, 12 banks joined the syndicate in this landmark sustainable financing.

 

MID-MARKET FINANCING DEAL OF THE YEAR (€20M-€70M MARKET): EUROPE

WINNER: BentallGreenOak (lender), W.RE (borrower), for the redevelopment financing of the former Arding & Hobbs department store, London, UK
SECOND PLACE: CBRE Investment Management (lender), Odysseus Capital Management (borrower), for Edinburgh One, UK
THIRD PLACE: OakNorth Bank (lender), Bruntwood SciTech (borrower), for the development financing of life sciences space in Birmingham, UK

In August 2021, US manager BentallGreenOak provided a £55 million (€64 million) loan to developer W.RE to support the reinvention of a historic department store in South London, which had been impacted by the crisis on the UK high street. The loan supports the redevelopment of the 137-year-old former Arding & Hobbs building, most recently occupied by Debenhams, into modern retail, leisure and office space, creating a new chapter for a local landmark.

 

SMALL-TICKET FINANCING DEAL OF THE YEAR (SUB-€20M MARKET): EUROPE

WINNER: Investec Real Estate (lender), Stelling Properties Group (borrower), for Riverside House, Guildford, UK
SECOND PLACE: M7 Capital (lender), Garroch Investments (borrower), for Princes House, Glasgow, UK
THIRD PLACE: Fortwell Capital (lender), Evermore Care (borrower), for Astley View
care home financing, Lancashire, UK

The £10.8 million (€13 million) loan provided in September by Investec Real Estate to developer Stelling Properties Group was the bank’s first financing deal involving a modular construction scheme. The senior loan funds the development of Riverside House, a student housing scheme in the town of Guildford, in the English county of Surrey. The loan was designed to enable Stelling to build the scheme off-site at its specialist factory.