Pan-European advisory firm CR Investment Management has acquired the Treveria Silo E portfolio of German assets out of insolvency for an undisclosed sum.

Pan-European advisory firm CR Investment Management has acquired the Treveria Silo E portfolio of German assets out of insolvency for an undisclosed sum.

The transaction, also known as Project Sunrise, involves 127 mainly city centre retail assets in A and B locations throughout Germany. Notable properties include the Gloria Gallerie on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, two shopping centres in Wilhelmshaven and Solingen, and department stores in Brühl, Euskirchen and Koblenz.

The portfolio was acquired by Sunrise Properties, a special purpose investment vehicle owned by CR shareholders and advised by CR Investment Management.

The portfolio was underpinned by the Orange Loan within the ABN Amro-issued Talisman 6 CMBS, which had an unpaid whole loan balance of around €380 mln. The portfolio was valued at €394.9 mln by BNP Paribas Real Estate in May 2012.

NPL and debt advisory firm Hatfield Philips International advised on the sale, which is subject to certain approval procedures. The transaction comes after an extensive marketing process led by JLL under Hatfield's direction together with the German and Dutch insolvency administrators. Corpus Sireo Real Estate was appointed asset manager shortly after the insolvency proceedings were opened.

The net disposal proceeds from the sale are expected to fully repay the amount of principal and interest outstanding on the A-Notes and partially repay the amount outstanding on the B-Notes.

Blair Lewis, CEO of Hatfield Philips: ‘Given the nature of the assets and their attractive lease profile, the portfolio received considerable interest resulting in a final price that will enable us to maximise proceeds to noteholders. This result underscores our recommended strategy to take control of the assets through a lender-led insolvency and collaborate with the Dutch and German insolvency administrators to work out the loan.’

‘The current market environment allows us to sell portfolios at a premium over single asset prices, if the transactions are carefully prepared and presented to investors and lenders with high-quality data on the underlying assets and markets,’ said Wilhelm Hammel, head of NPL Advisory at Hatfield Philips. ‘In regards to this transaction, we worked diligently to clean up the portfolio through the sale of problematic assets and created a comprehensive data room with thorough documentation on each asset.’

Swiss-based HFS Helvetic Financial Services was involved in the financing for the transaction.