Renshaw Bay closes debt fund at £356m

Renshaw Bay has completed a final close of its commercial real estate debt fund which now has £356m of committed capital.

Renshaw Bay Real Estate Finance Fund received £86m of capital investments from three investors for its final close – a UK local authority, a US-based family trust and an increased allocation from a global private bank.

The fund held a first close of £150m in November 2012 and a second in June last year, which took it to £270m.

Renshaw’s fund issues direct, whole loans on assets in western Europe, predominantly in the UK and Germany, and lends on most types of assets, including student accommodation, self-storage, hotels and leisure as well as offices, retail and industrial.

To compete in an increasingly crowded market, Renshaw aims to be as flexible as possible, considering investment loans from terms of 3-15 years and mezzanine loans from £10m up and whole loans from £30m.

Renshaw Bay was also awarded a £350m senior lending mandate from Guardian Financial Services in 2013.

To date the fund manager has deployed £179m to 14 commercial real estate loans and said it “has a robust pipeline of additional lending opportunities that are due to close in the coming weeks”.

Jon Rickert, head of real estate finance at the firm added: “We are pleased to have completed the final close for the fund as scheduled and appreciate the confidence shown by investors in the fund’s expanding portfolio of investments alongside the team’s ability to originate, execute and manage real estate debt investments.

“We will continue to seek value for investors by sourcing attractive risk-adjusted lending opportunities”.

Renshaw also has a structured finance fund business. It was announced last week that the company’s chief executive Bill Winters (pictured) is to be the new chief executive of Standard Chartered. The former co-head of JP Morgan’s investment bank is to join Standard Chartered’s board in June.