LaSalle Investment Management has increased its European whole loan debt vehicle by €300 mln, taking capital raised to €900 mln.
Richard Craddock, a managing director in LaSalle’s debt and special situations business, said the new investment was a sign of continuing strong demand from investors for whole loans. LaSalle writes whole loans with loan-to-value ratios up to 80% in ticket sizes from €25 mln to over €100 mln. This part of the debt business has made six investments to date.
LaSalle Whole Loan Strategies’ latest deal is a facility for the self-storage joint venture between The Carlyle Group and Safestore Holdings.
The JV announced last week that it has bought six, freehold self-storage properties from Lokabox in Belgium: two in Brussels; two in Liège; one in Charleroi and one in Nivelles, which offer a combined c.20,600 m2 lettable area of self-storage space which is 63% occupied.
LaSalle declined to disclose the size of the loan which includes a capex component.
Safestore owns 20% of the JV with Carlyle. The UK-listed, mult-country company said that its equity investment in the JV relating to Lokabox will amount to €2.8 mln.
Safestore will also earn a fee for providing management services to the JV and the company expects to earn an initial return on investment of 12% before transaction related costs for the first full year reflecting its share of expected JV profits and fees for management services.
Carlyle is investing via its €540 mln Carlyle Europe Realty fund. The JV has already invested in six stores in Amsterdam and Haarlem in the Netherlands, a deal which LaSalle also financed.
LaSalle Whole Loan Strategies' original capital of €600 mln was announced in May 2019. It considers loan investments in Western Europe and the Nordics. Craddock joined last October from Wells Fargo bank to lead its growth.
