US private equity giant Cerberus Capital Management has again emerged as the biggest buyer of loan sales in Europe, according to the latest report on the European real estate loan sales market by Cushman & Wakefield
US private equity giant Cerberus Capital Management has again emerged as the biggest buyer of loan sales in Europe, according to the latest report on the European real estate loan sales market by Cushman & Wakefield
Cerberus accounted for €5.6 bn of sales over the period, or 24% of all closed sales in H1 2015 after completing the Capital Homes Loans deal valued at €3.5 bn.
Cerberus was also the biggest investor in European non-performing loans (NPLs) last year, according to C&W. Cerberus affiliates invested around €17.7 bn in European NPLs in 2014, accounting for 22% of all closed commercial real estate and real estate-owned transactions.
The Deutsche Bank and Apollo partnership remains in second place at €3.2 bn following their Permanent TSB purchases earlier in the year. Meanwhile Lone Star has climbed to third place after its purchase of the Project Parrot NPLs. In total Lone Star forked out €1.6 bn on loan sales over the period.
The remainder of the top 10 investors is also dominated by US firms. JP Morgan ranks fourth with €1.4 bn, followed by Oaktree Capital (€1.3 bn), Fortress/Eurocastle (€1.2 bn), Sankaty (€1 bn), Blackstone (€950 mln), and Goldman Sachs (€754 mln). A German company - Otto Group - ranked 10th with €650 mln.
C&W expects Ireland's NAMA and UK-based UKAR to be key vendors in 2015, after their recent launch of the €7.2 bn Project Arrow and €17.6 bn Granite Portfolio respectively. The London-based adviser recorded €9.5 bn of closed European commercial real estate (CRE) and real estate owned (REO) sales in Q2 2015, bringing the total for the first half of the year to €23.5 bn.
