Recent announcements that TH Real Estate is expanding its UK-based real estate debt platform into Continental Europe, while LaSalle Investment Management sees the UK as offering the best opportunities regardless of a potential Brexit highlights how the debt financing sector is both becoming more crowded and diversifying after several lean years during the crisis.
Christoph Wagner, director of debt strategies at TH Real Estate, said in March that the company will initially focus on senior loans for its separate account in countries such as Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain. Wagner: 'These geographies offer good opportunities from a lending perspective and TH Real Estate already has a direct property investment business in place in these markets. We have already started the groundwork, we have gotten comfortable with the legal environment, and we believe we will complete our first non-UK financing transaction over the course of the year.'
Around the same time, Amy Klein Aznar, head of debt investments and special situations at LaSalle in London, told PropertyEU that LaSalle sees the best investment opportunities in the UK debt space, despite the looming threat of a potential Brexit.
'This year, we could underwrite more than £500 mln (€633 mln) in mezzanine and whole loans in the UK and Europe. So far this year, we have underwritten or are currently closing £200 mln of loan facilities. We’ve been more active in the UK because that is where our network is strongest and the structure of the lending market suits us. In the past 12 months, we have underwritten more than £550 mln in loans in the UK across 12 deals. We’ve also done deals in France and Germany.'
Investment briefing
It is clear that the debt markets have seen considerable changes over the past 12 months with alternative lenders taking a more leading role and both banks and investors moving up the risk curve. What is not so clear is what to expect next for the sector. Therefore, PropertyEU is hosting a briefing with leading industry figures at the UBS offices in Frankfurt on 18 May to discuss the key trends helping to shape the sector, and what implications these trends will have for borrowers, lenders and investors.
The briefing is based around a panel of leading market players including Goodwin Procter, UBS Global Asset Management, E&Y, and Commerzbank.
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European Debt Finance & Investment
18 May 2016
09:00 - 11:30
UBS - OpernTurm, Bockenheimer Landstraße 2-4,
Frankfurt am Main, 60306 Germany
