Karlin to plough €600m into European real estate, opens London office

Los Angeles-based Karlin Real Estate has opened its first overseas office in London, UK as part of the firm’s strategy to invest up to €730 mln (£600 mln) in commercial real estate assets in Europe through both its debt and equity platforms.

The London office will be headed by Joseph Self, who will be responsible for growing the firm’s existing 600,000-sq ft European portfolio.

Self, who joined Karlin in 2010, has played an instrumental role in the firm’s overall growth having been involved in a variety of opportunistic acquisitions and financings throughout the US with an aggregate value of over $500 mln (€360 mln). Self will be joined in the London office by associate Gregg Yamauchi.

Karlin Real Estate, the real estate investment arm of Los Angeles-based Karlin Asset Management, marked its entry into the European commercial real estate market in August 2013 with the £16 mln acquisition of a 169,931-sq ft office building in Peterborough, UK.

Karlin added to its European portfolio with the acquisition of a distribution building leased to Jaguar Land Rover in Ellesmere Port and an office building in Solihull, which is fully leased to The Paragon Group of Companies. The separate transactions totalled £18 mln.

'An office in London was critical for the growth of both our equity and debt platforms in Europe,' said David A. Cohen, Karlin Asset Management’s CEO. 'We are extremely pleased with the performance of our acquisitions in the UK and are now looking more closely at assets in Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Ireland. In addition we will also be looking for opportunities in which we can provide senior and mezzanine financing for the acquisition or recapitalisation of transitional assets in those markets,' he added.

Karlin Real Estate, a unit of privately-held Karlin Asset Management, has more than $1.5 bn in unleveraged capital under management, and focuses on acquiring value added commercial properties, bundled assets as well as performing and non-performing debt secured by real estate throughout the US and Western Europe.

Through its dedicated debt platform, Karlin has also provided more than $370 mln in senior and mezzanine financing for the acquisition and refinancing of opportunistic and transitional real estate assets throughout the US.