Blackstone’s UK logistics CMBS has attracted high demand, with the £158 mln senior tranche pricing at 85 basis points over the SONIA interest rate benchmark.
Observers believe the fact that the Taurus 2021-1 UK issue from Bank of America is a logistics transaction, and that it is the first European CMBS deal of the year, made it particularly sought after by structured finance investors.
Pricing for the five tranches ranged from SONIA +85 for the Class As which were rated AAA and SONIA +130 for the £40 mln Class Bs, through to SONIA +165 for the £36 mln Class Cs, SONIA +260 for the £56 mln Class D tranche, and SONIA +365 for the Class Es.
All tranches were more than 4x oversubscribed with the Class D tranche oversubscribed 9.3 x.
The underlying security is a single loan with an LTV of 61.6% secured on ‘United V’, 45 last mile logistics and industrial assets across the UK valued at £557 mln. The two-year loan can be extended to 2026.
United V bundles all Blackstone’s UK acquisitions for Mileway since Q1 2020.
The CMBS is the sixth announced secured on European real estate over the past 12 months and the seventh since the start of 2020, according to rating agency DBRS. Blackstone was the main sponsor of four of the six.
The value of CMBS issuance in Europe in 2020 was just €2.1 bn, versus €6.5 bn in 2019 in 17 transactions before the pandemic.
