Orange portfolio sold in first Dutch CMBS workout

The EPI Orange portfolio has been sold to an unidentified private equity firm for EUR 50 mln. The deal involving 23 office and light industrial properties in the Netherlands was announced earlier this month by Cushman & Wakefield on behalf of special servicer Capita.

PropertyEU understands the outstanding volume of the loan was EUR 75 mln, which matured at end-2010. The joint fund managers and EPI Orange (Netherlands) declined to comment on the transaction. C&W said the deal was finalised in mid-February.

The portfolio comprises 112,000 m² of assets - 50% offices and 50% industrial - and has a vacancy rate of 22%. The portfolio was owned by Luxembourg-based EPI Orange (Netherlands), part of European Property Investors (EPI), a value-add fund managed by AEW Europe and Tristan Capital Partners.

C&W said this was the first portfolio of assets sold in Europe as a result of a CMBS workout. Aside from C&W, the other advisers to Capita in the sale were Dewey & LeBeouf and Loyens & Loeff.

EPI Orange (Netherlands) acquired the complete Orange portfolio which was valued at EUR 180 mln in 2004. Two years later property adviser Knight Frank valued the portfolio, then 31 assets, at about EUR 160 mln. The CMBS loan amounted to EUR 119 mln at the time.

Several properties were sold in the intervening period to pay down the loan, followed by the compulsory disposal of the entire portfolio in February this year.

The news follows hard on the heels of the sale of the defaulted Opera Finance (Uni-Invest) CMBS loan to private equity groups TPG Capital and Patron Capital Partners. Opera Finance (Uni-Invest) was reportedly the first CMBS in Europe to default on maturity.