Pricoa provides €123m loan for London’s Waldorf Hilton

Pricoa Mortgage Capital has arranged a £103 mln (€123 mln) loan to refinance The Waldorf Hilton, an historic luxury hotel located in the heart of London’s theatre district.

The deal represents Pricoa Mortgage Capital’s seventh commercial real estate loan since launching its European business in 2012 and its fifth in the UK.

Pricoa Mortgage Capital is the commercial mortgage lending business of Prudential Financial, which is headquartered in the US.

The Waldorf Hilton is wholly owned by the Bhatia family, which is led by Gulshan Bhatia and has several prominent hotel holdings across London. The asset was originally purchased for the family’s portfolio in 2007 and Pricoa Mortgage Capital’s 15-year, fixed-rate loan will be used to refinance existing debt.

The financing brings Pricoa Mortgage Capital’s secured commercial real estate loan portfolio in Europe to nearly $1 bn since its first European loan in June 2012.

It is also the first loan under the new Friends Life investment mandate announced in July 2013. Under the £500 mln discretionary mandate, Friends Life will participate in large loans originated by Pricoa Mortgage Capital, boosting Pricoa Mortgage Capital’s single loan limit in the UK to more than £250 mln.

The Friends Life co-investment programme targets senior secured, fixed-rate loans with maturities of between 5 and 15 years, with appetite for assets in London as well as regional England and Wales.

'The Waldorf Hilton loan is both testament to Pricoa Mortgage Capital’s long-term commitment to European markets and also our ability to deploy capital on behalf of third-party mortgage investors,' said Drew Abernethy, head of European originations for Pricoa Mortgage Capital.

Looking ahead to 2014, Pricoa said it will continue its focus on senior, fixed-rate commercial real estate debt in Europe.