Goldman Sachs has closed its largest-ever global lending fund while Blackstone negotiates to buy unwanted Pbb loans.
A mix of sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors and private wealth clients poured money into Goldman's West Street Real Estate Credit Partners IV, which combined with related vehicles and leverage, amassed $7bn (€6.5 bn) to lend to real estate.
'The fundraise comes amid a significant opportunity set in real estate credit driven by major dislocations in real estate markets globally, creating attractive opportunities for alternative lending sources that can provide size and certainty of execution to borrowers', Goldman said.
The fund, which launched in December 2022, will make €100 mln+ loans to real estate owners in Europe, the US and Australia.
Meanwhile, Pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank announced that it was cutting exposures in the UK and the US of 'non-core' loans via a portfolio transaction comprising financings of office, residential and hotel properties with a volume of €900 mln.
The portfolio includes what was Pbb's first UK BTR loan, to Moda and Apache Capital's Angel Gardens tower in Manchester. It also includes a position in the debt against London's Berkeley and Connaught hotels. It numbers 11 performing loans, split approximately half and half across UK and US transactions, according to React News.
Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies will take over the portfolio paying a small discount to face value.
Private equity firm Patron Capital also closed a fund this week, garnering over €860 mln for its seventh vintage in its flagship series which targets returns of 17% to 20%.
Keith Breslauer, managing director and founder of Patron Capital, said: 'In the 25 years since Patron Capital was founded, we have worked successfully through many cycles and can say with confidence that the current opportunity set in real estate is one of the most exciting I have seen.
There are a number of interesting deals closing this week: a data centre company - tipped by Costar to be KKR-backed Global Technical Realty - paid almost £10 mln per acre for a prime west London site; and Cromwell Property Group finally sold out of a portfolio of six Polish shopping centres, for £285 mln, which had been owned in a fund it managed. Five years ago there were seven centres in the Cromwell Polish Retail Fund valued at €600 mln.
The 33.6-acre data centre site, sold by active UK institution Royal London Asset Management, went for £315 mln. It is freehold and close to both Heathrow Airport and good fibre connectivity.
We also track all the other deals closed, the latest financings and five new assets coming to market.
