M&G Investments has completed the largest acquisition financing of Dutch residential property since the start of the credit crisis with the grant of a €110 mln senior commercial mortgage.
M&G Investments has completed the largest acquisition financing of Dutch residential property since the start of the credit crisis with the grant of a €110 mln senior commercial mortgage.
The senior mortgage financing is backed by a portfolio of 1,250 residential units in the Netherlands plus several commercial properties. The Dutch sponsor acquired the portfolio from several vendors.
The package is well diversified across the country with the largest property in the portfolio being a 2008 apartment complex in Amsterdam, as well as properties in Groningen, Heerenveen and Rotterdam.
The €110 mln loan has a term of 10 years and represents a 65% Loan-to-Value ratio. In a statement, M&G said that the innovative structure of the loan – with a part fixed and part floating rate – has allowed it to move away from the more rigid bank financing typically available in the Dutch market. 'This structure provides the borrower with a high degree of flexibility and also helps to match the investment appetite of M&G’s clients,' it added.
M&G noted that is not aware of any other non-bank transactions of this kind in the Dutch market since the start of the financial crisis.
Earlier this year M&G also financed two European shopping centres: the Jervis shopping centre in Dublin and Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza, Spain.
'This good quality portfolio being bought by a Dutch sponsor was the right transaction for us to enter the Dutch market with this senior mortgage financing loan,' commented Paul Dittmann, head of senior mortgages at M&G Investments. 'The Dutch market, both in the commercial and the residential area, has had a difficult period and fundamental problems but, for investors such as M&G with good resources and client capital to deploy, there will always be relative value opportunities.'