Eurohypo finances Almacantar's Centre Point buy

Eurohypo has provided a £50 mln financing to Almacantar to assist in the acquisition of Centre Point, WC1. The five-year facility was structured to support the purchase of the building whilst also allowing surplus monies to be employed for capital expenditure.

Eurohypo, the agent and sole underwriter of the facility, worked closely with Almacantar, in their maiden acquisition, to formulate a debt package which sat alongside their immediate business plan.

The £120 mln acquisition of the Centre Point tower in London's West End is the first for Almacantar, which was founded by Mike Hussey, the former London chief of Land Securities and Neil Jones, at former Continental Europe director at Grosvenor.

'We have been in dialogue with the team at Almacantar since its inception and have been impressed with their vision as a company and for this asset,' said Michael Acratopulo, managing director, UK Origination, Eurohypo. 'The financing played to our strengths in allowing us to deploy our real estate experience to understand Almancantar's plans to actively manage the property.'

Almacantar has been in talks with administrators Deloitte since late last year for the acquisition of the 34-storey asset of two collapsed subsidiaries of Targetfollow. The deal raises the total sales sum of Targetfollow assets to over £250 mln. Lloyds Banking Group is the main creditor of the two key Targetfollow subsidiaries, Targetfollow Property Holdings and Targetfollow Property Investment and Development, which went into administration in late 2010.

Deloitte was appointed in October 2010 as the administrator to the two subsidiaries, which held the company's properties.

In April last year Almacantar raised EUR 150 mln in its first closing, including EUR 100 mln invested by Exor, the investment arm of the Italian Agnelli family.