GE Capital Real Estate Europe is hoping to build a $5 bn UK loan portfolio within the next four to five years, according to the company’s Paris-based European president Lennart Sten. ‘The UK is our number one target market, where we are focusing on debt financing,’ he told PropertyEU. ‘You can get good returns by taking senior debt risk. You can’t get the same returns on equity today.’
GE Capital Real Estate Europe is hoping to build a $5 bn UK loan portfolio within the next four to five years, according to the company’s Paris-based European president Lennart Sten. ‘The UK is our number one target market, where we are focusing on debt financing,’ he told PropertyEU. ‘You can get good returns by taking senior debt risk. You can’t get the same returns on equity today.’
GE Capital’s UK loan portfolio totalled around $4 bn as of end-September 2012. So far this year, it has done around $201 mln in new business, excluding restructurings and extensions. Next year, it is hoping to do between $500 mln and $800 mln in new business, Sten said. GE Capital will lend on a variety of asset classes, including offices, retails and hotels, providing they have a ‘good cash flow,’ he added.
