CIM Group, a real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender and developer, has expanded its $10 bn (€9.4 bn) Real Estate Debt Solutions platform to Europe, with initial plans to originate primarily whole loans on transitional assets as well as core mezzanine loans across the UK and key Western European countries.
CIM Group is targeting loan sizes of between £75 mln and £200 mln for whole loans and between £20 mln and £50 mln for core mezzanine loans, which will initially be made under the firm’s existing fund mandates.
The European credit strategy expects to expand to also include ground-up development financings in the future.
CIM Group established a London office in 2021. The firm is currently adding to its local credit team, which will be supported by more than 30 credit professionals based in the US.
The European Real Estate Debt Solutions business is a natural extension of CIM Group’s US-based debt solutions business, which provided more than $3.8 bn in commercial real estate loans last year.
CIM’s expansion is part of the group’s plans to capitalize on the opportunity in Europe, where more than €150 bn of debt across European property firms is estimated to mature by 2025 and the availability of capital from traditional bank sources is more difficult to obtain in light of market conditions as well as regulatory requirements. The company intends on working with European borrowers to bridge this funding gap by providing flexible capital.
‘CIM Group’s vertically-integrated platform with experience across market cycles gives us an advantage as we enter the European private real estate credit market and allocate existing capital from our $10 bn lending platform,’ said Richard Ressler, co-founder and principal of CIM Group.
CIM Group entered the Western European real estate market in October 2021 with the acquisition of Cathedral Square, a three-building office campus in Guildford, United Kingdom. The company’s London-based investment team pursues a value-add strategy targeting well-located office, residential, retail and logistics properties in select metropolitan markets.
