TH Real Estate has secured c.€470m of debt financing jointly from ING and LBBW.
The debt was secured on 10 assets on behalf of its Cityhold Office Partnership Fund (CHOP). The c.€240m UK refinancing for the four London assets was secured at 35% loan to value on a seven year term. The portfolio includes 60 Great Portland Street, W1, 12-14 New Fetter Lane, EC4, Belgrave House, SW1 and 40 Holborn Viaduct, EC1.
The c.€230.9m continental European refinancing was secured on four assets in France and two in Germany. They include four assets in Paris – 70 Boulevard de Courcelles, 69 Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, 154 Rue de l’Universite & 36 Rue Lafayette – and the Atlantic Haus and Burstah assets in Hamburg. Financing on these assets was secured at 50% loan to value on a 10-year term.
CHOP is a €1.8bn pan-European office vehicle, comprising investors TIAA, AP1 & AP2. Launched in 2015, CHOP’s platform comprises c.250,000 m²(c. 2.7m ft²) of core office space across the UK, France and Germany. CHOP primarily targets ‘core’ investments in Tier 1 cities such as London, Paris, Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Berlin. Additionally, the investment programme invests in ‘value-add’ opportunities such as leasing, renovation and development opportunities in these Tier 1 cities, as well as stabilised core investments within Tier 2 cities, that include Madrid, Milan and Amsterdam, among others.
Farrah Brown, Head of Treasury at TH Real Estate, said: "The prime and core nature of the real estate, moderate leverage requirements, and quality of the sponsors were key factors in attracting a high level of interest from real estate lenders. ING and LBBW were able to provide us with significant balance sheet/underwriting capacity and the added benefit of funding in both Euro and Sterling denominations; these factors have cemented their role(s) as our key relationship lenders.
"The financing of these assets will allow us to continue to deliver strong investment returns for our investors with sufficient flexibility to enable us to grow our CHOP portfolio across Europe."
Jasper Gilbey, Fund Manager, Cityhold Office Partnership, TH Real Estate, adds: "The competitive debt terms are credit to the high quality of the underlying real estate and is expected to drive long-term performance from the existing portfolio. CHOP will equally seek to build on both the UK and Continental European facilities as it seeks to grow the current portfolio to €4bn+ via new acquisitions – focusing on core and emerging office markets located in key Continental European cities in the near future."
CHOP was advised on the refinancing by Eastdil Secured.
