Barings Real Estate Debt agreed 14 loans worth more than €1.08 bn across its different debt strategies in Europe and APAC in 2021.
The milestone follows a sustained period of growth for the Europe and APAC real estate debt platform over the last three years, which has nearly doubled its loan commitments to more than €3.4 bn assets under management in this time.
Key deals in 2021 included a £140 mln (€164 mln) eight-year fixed rate senior loan against two London student accommodation properties to the London Student Accommodation Venture, a joint venture between Unite Group and GIC; an increase to a €85.6 mln first mortgage loan secured against four Grade A logistics assets comprising a total of 116,600 m2 of space within the Los Gavilanes industrial park in Getafe, Madrid; and a new €225 mln senior secured, floating rate loans secured against income-producing industrial portfolios in Ireland for KKR and Palm Capital.
Sam Mellor, head of Europe & Asia-Pacific Real Estate Debt at Barings, said: 'We are very proud of what we have achieved with our real estate debt platform in Europe and APAC at Barings over the last few years.
'Not only have we grown the size and scope of our loan book considerably, taking on new geographies that allow us to take advantage of Barings’ well-established platform of local offices and research capabilities, but we have also diversified our capital sources and the range of products that we are able to offer.
'This means that we are able to stay relevant to our sponsors’ range of activities, as well as offer our investors a complete range of products to suit their risk/return appetite in a truly flexible and intuitive way.
'The combination of credit expertise and local real estate knowledge means we can invest with a deep understanding of the real estate or portfolio in question underpinning all that we do.
'We have achieved over €975 mln of realisations since inception in 2012, with no losses in the process, and we are very much looking forward to continuing and growing this successful track record in the years ahead.'
Chris Bates, head of Europe Real Estate Debt Origination at Barings, said: 'Since inception we have committed €4.4 bn of investor capital, driven by our strong team of origination professionals that allows us to select the most attractive opportunities for our strategy.
'The team has also grown significantly in this time, with further new appointments in the pipeline as we look to further expand our geographic reach to France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Finland so that we are able to deploy debt capital in markets where we have existing local real estate expertise.'
