German life insurer VPV Versicherungen and another insurance company have provided a €80 mln loan to refinance the Linden shopping centre in Berlin.

German life insurer VPV Versicherungen and another insurance company have provided a €80 mln loan to refinance the Linden shopping centre in Berlin.

The shopping centre is majority-owned by the ECE European Prime Shopping Centre Fund and is operated by Hamburg-based ECE.

The credit facility runs for around 15 years and will be released in tranches until end-2015. It is split equally between the two insurance companies.

The loan marks VPV’s entry into the real estate lending sector.

The insurer is targeting individual loans in the range from €10 mln to €60 mln, with a maximum LTV ratio of 70%. Deloitte will advise VPF on the transactions.

VPV said it was keen to take part in bank consortia for future lending activities but not in the role of consortium leader.