Italian asset manager Banor has launched a European senior real estate debt strategy targeting between €300m and €400m of capital, seeking to capitalise on banks’ gradual withdrawal from the property lending space.
The Banor Senior Debt fund is targeting senior secured loans in Italy, the UK and Spain, with a focus on the residential, hospitality and student housing sectors.
The strategy is aimed primarily at the mid-market, where Banor said borrowers are increasingly turning to alternative sources of financing as regulatory constraints, greater selectivity by banks and the growing complexity of real estate transactions limit traditional bank lending.
The fund expects to invest €10m-€40m per transaction and build a diversified portfolio of about 14-16 investments across geographies, asset classes and counterparties. Investments will include development financing for projects intended for sale, refurbishment and value-add projects, repositioning of existing assets and refinancing when existing credit facilities mature.
The fund will have a four-year investment period from final close, followed by a two-year divestment period, with extensions possible.
Banor Senior Debt expands the Italian asset manager’s real estate credit platform, Banor Real Estate Credit Opportunities, which was established in 2018. Its first vehicle, Banor Special Situations I, raised €115m and focused mainly on subordinated financing. This was followed by Banor Special Situations II, a €275m fund dedicated to real estate credit.
Lorenzo Guidi, portfolio manager and head of Banor Real Estate Credit Opportunities, said the new fund would allow the firm to extend its experience in subordinated lending into senior debt, offering “more protected” positions in the capital structure.
| Recently completed deals | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | Asset type | Location | Buyer | Vendor | Size | Price (mln) | Key facts |
| Spire Healthcare Group | corporate | UK | Toscafund, Three Hills and Ares | Spire shareholders | NA | £1026 (€1194) | Spire operates 38 hospitals and more than 55 clinics. |
| Dreischeibenhaus | office | Düsseldorf | HIH Invest | Schwarz-Schütte family | 32,239m2 | €240 | The property is LEED Gold certified and is almost fully let. |
| Gran Vía 28 | office | Madrid | Tomás Olivo | Telefónica | 32,000m2 | €200 | The property served as the headquarters of the Spanish company ‘Compañía Telefónica Nacional’ from late 1929. |
| Project Golen | logistics | Italy | CBRE IM | Hines | 172,000m2 | €130 | The portfolio consists of logistics assets spread across the strategic northern Italian regions of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna. |
| six high quality grocery assets | retail | UK | Supermarket Income REIT | NA | 285,000sqft | £104 (€121) | The acquisitions mark the completion of the deployment of the proceeds of the firm’s £100m equity raise in July. |
| distribution centre | logistics | Sheffield, UK | Primark Stores | Debenhams | 615,000sqft | £90 | Debenhams received £76.5m on completion and the remaining £13.5m will be received on vacant possession early next year. |
| industrial asset | logistics | Milton Keynes, England | Chancerygate | DTZ Investors | 192,000sqft | £28 (€33) | DTZ Investors originally acquired the estate for roughly £18.09m in 2019. |
| warehouse asset | logistics | Madrid | Arkéa and Catella | Árima Real Estate Socimi | 25,700m2 | €28 | The asset is fully let to the STEF group. |
| Citywest Shopping Centre | retail | Dublin | IROKO Zen SCPI | Ardstone | 184,000sqft | €24 | Developed in 2007 the Centre generates a net operating income of approximately €2.24m per annum. |
| two healthcare assets | healthcare | Germany | Threestones Capital | NA | 12,000m2 | €22 | The properties are located in Ebsdorfergrund, Hesse, and Offenburg, Baden-Württemberg. |
| seven hotels | hotel | UK | Starboard Hotels and LaSalle IM | Ares and EQ | 900rooms | NA | The portfolio includes Novotel Birmingham Centre. |
| four hotels | hotel | Warsaw and Szczecin | De Silva City | Essendi Poland | NA | NA | The portfolio includes Sofitel Victoria Warsaw and three hotels in Szczecin: Novotel Szczecin Centrum, Ibis Szczecin Centrum and Ibis Styles Szczecin Stare Miasto. |
| Arlington Business Park | office | Reading, UK | WillsFlower | CapitaLand | 367,000sqft | NA | Newmark was appointed to sell the campus ownership with a guide of around £55m last year. |
| Hotel Crowne Plaza | hotel | Copenhagen | CapMan Nordic Real Estate IV, AP Pension | Niam | 29,000m2 | NA | The acquisition was completed through a newly established 50/50 joint venture with Danish pension company AP Pension. |
| 3 Rue des Saussaies | office | Paris | KanAm Grund Group | NA | 2,200m2 | NA | The acquisition was made on behalf of a German institutional investor. |
| educational healthcare facility | healthcare | Berlin | AEW Europe | Pantera AG | 4,700m2 | NA | The transaction represents the fund’s first acquisition in Germany. |
| Novotel Freiburg am Konzerthaus | hotel | Freiburg, Germany | IREMIS | Deka Immobilien | 219-rooms | NA | Currently operated under the Novotel brand, the hotel will undergo a substantial refurbishment in 2027. |
| development site | development | Rosenheim, Germany | Euro Real Estate GmbH | Gabor Shoes GmbH | 40,000m2 | NA | The deal was structured as a long-term sale-and-leaseback transaction. |
| Assets on the market | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | Asset type | Location | Vendor | Size | Price (mln) | Broker | Key facts |
| Fitzwilliam 28 | office | Dublin | Amundi | 135,000sqft | €150 | NA | The building is fully let to blue-chip occupier SMBC Aviation Capital. |
| The Mall | retail | Kent, UK | NewRiver | 49,700m2 | £30 (€35) | Savills | The asset features over 80 shops. |
| development site | development | Rotherham, UK | Keyland | 24.4-acre | £28 (€33) | GV&Co | The site has planning permission for 330,000sqft of logistics space. |
| Kingsway House and 4 Great Queen Street | development | London | GMS Estates | 51,000sqft | £25 (€29) | Knight Frank | The site offers the potential to create a flagship hospitality asset. |
| Waterside Innovation Campus | office | Dublin | Fine Grain Property | 56,466sqft | €22.5 | Savills | The building is fully let to Fidelity Investments. |
| Eastgate shopping centre | retail | Inverness, Scotland | Irish consortium | 343,220sqft | £18.5 (€22) | Knight Frank | The landlord is seeking offers reflecting a net initial yield of 12%. |
| Lansdowne Quarter | development | Dublin | Irish Rugby Football Union | 257rooms | NA | CBRE | IRFU is seeking expressions of interest for a partner to design, build, finance and operate a landmark hotel and residential development. |
| Marylebone Place | office | London | TPG Angelo Gordon and Beltane Asset Management | 77,000sqft | NA | CBRE and Michael Elliott | The landlord restarted a previously abandoned sale process for Marylebone Place, 1 Wyndham Street. |
| 52 avenue Hoche | office | Paris | JP Morgan Global Alternatives | 10,982m2 | NA | NA | The property was bought in 2012 and houses the head office of Barclays. |
| 30 Euston Square | office | London | Royal College of General Practitioners | 121,000sqft | NA | Newmark | RCGP will relocate to a smaller, right-sized central London location over the next two to three years. |
| Recently completed loans | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lender(s) | Borrower(s) | Asset(s) | Loan Size (mln) | Key facts |
| Bond investors | Clariane | Unsecured | €500 | The senior notes will refinance part of the group’s existing indebtedness. |
| L&G | Aprirose | social housing portfolio | £134.5 (€157) | The five-year debt facility is secured against six assets. |
| Precede Capital, Deva, Nomura and Firma Partners. | Hurlington Capital | Bollo Lane scheme in Acton | £112 (€130) | The mixed-use development will deliver 429 student bedrooms, 95 affordable homes and commercial space, with completion targeted for the 2028/29 academic year. |
| DKB Bank | Citygrove | three German hotels | €83 | The debt package backs three German hotels located in key regional hubs, including Lübeck and Düsseldorf. |
| Maslow Capital | Propea La Sella | resi develoment in Alicante | €62.7 | The facility will finance the site acquisition and construction of 131 single-family homes within the Denia Marriott La Sella Golf Resort & Spa. |
| Macquarie Capital Principal Finance | Nesta | Self storage portfolio | €50 | The new debt package supports Nesta’s strategic business plan and future operations as Ireland’s largest self-storage provider. |
| Metro Bank | Banor Capital | 3 hotels in the UK | £27 (€31) | The financing backs the acquisition of 415 beds across three schemes. |
| Rietumu Bank | Capitalica AM | Riga office development | €31 | The loan will fund the completion of Building D at Verde, Latvia’s greenest office district in Riga. |
| New mandates/JVs and funds on the market | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Firm | Fund/mandate/JV | Strategy | Details |
| BNPP AM Alts | European Junior Infrastructure Debt fund | Providing investors with defensive and stable income from senior and junior secured fixed and floating rate debt investments spanning the renewables energy, utilities, digital infrastructure, clean mobility and social infrastructure sectors. | The fund has raised €1.2 bn of total capital. |
| Starlight Investments | Starlight UK BTR Fund II | Focusing on build-to-rent (BTR) development in the UK. | The vehicle has raised £680m to support the development of 6,000 homes in the UK. |
| Atrato and GIC | European supermarkets joint venture | Investing up to €300m in the European supermarket property sector | The partners have completed a sale-and-leaseback portfolio acquisition in France and Spain. |
| Banor | Banor Senior Debt Fund | Financing residential projects in Italy, Spain and the UK | The senior real estate credit strategy seeks to raise €300-400m. |
