US private equity firm picks up €800m of Dutch assets via discounted loan deal

US private equity group Kildare Real Estate Partners is taking control of a Dutch property portfolio, valued at around €800 mln at end-2013, by acquiring the related debt at a 42% discount, PropertyEU has learned.

The mixed-use portfolio is owned by the Chalet Group, the investment vehicle of Dutch entrepreneur Marcel Boekhoorn. The assets were valued at around €800 mln at end-2013.

According to sources close to Boekhoorn consulted by PropertyEU, Kildare is buying the loan - and effectively the underlying assets - from Dutch FGH Bank for a discount of around 42%. The loan is being acquired for €430 mln, but is valued at €750 mln in FGH’s books.

The deal, which is set to be finalised before the end of the year, does not include the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, acquired by the Chalet Group from electronics group Philips for €425 mln in 2012.

The portfolio which Kildare is buying consists mainly of offices (67%), with some retail and public-sector property.

The sources told PropertyEU said that while the loan sale was initiated by FGH, the disposal of the assets fits in with Boekhoorn’s view that real estate in peripheral Dutch locations does not offer potential for adding value in the short or long term.

The High Tech Campus does not fall into this category as Boekhoorn is investing in the growth of the companies which rent the space at the site. The campus consists of a developed site covering some 246,000 m2 well as 130,000 m2 of potential office and R&D space.

It houses around 90 businesses which together employ some 8,000 researchers, developers and entrepreneurs.

The deal brings total foreign investment in the Netherlands to around €5 bn this year, equivalent to nearly 65% of the total volume.

Kildare Partners, which has offices in the US, UK and Ireland, targets opportunistic investments in distressed real estate, including both debt and equity products, exclusively in western Europe.