Tunstall Real Estate Asset Management, a newly formed pan-European alternative investment management firm led by Roger Clarke, announces that it has made its first investment for a new Dutch focussed discounted pay-off debt fund, DPO Fund 1, having received €55m of initial commitments from a number of international investors at its first closing. The Fund is Tunstall’s first credit investment fund and this transaction, which follows the Group’s recent acquisition of London housing-led regeneration specialist Pinnacle, further underlines Tunstall’s intention to develop a pan-European real estate platform investing, via equity and debt, into corporate, direct and indirect opportunities.
DPO Fund 1 has been established to facilitate the restructuring of NPLs, held against otherwise performing assets, by a mechanism of acquiring loans (from as small as €2m) and simultaneously restructuring them, by mutual consent, alongside the original borrower.
The investment comprises the acquisition of a portfolio of five loans for €31.7m, secured on a portfolio of 20 assets across the Northern region of the Netherlands, predominantly office properties but also comprising warehouse and retail assets.
With an estimated €11bn of NPLs to be worked through in the Netherlands alone, Tunstall believes there is significant demand for an investor that is willing to refinance loans through a discounted purchase mechanism, from both the holders of existing loans of this size, many of which have been acquired as part of larger debt portfolios, as well as the original borrowers. With the assets refinanced the original borrowers are then able to benefit from investing further in the underlying properties and undertaking asset and portfolio management initiatives.
Tunstall is well placed to play an active role in this speciality lending market in the Netherlands due to its close association with M7 Real Estate, a pan-European investor and asset manager with operations in 13 European countries. It has the leading investment and asset management platform in the Netherlands led by Remko Dickhaut and Femke van Oest comprising a portfolio in excess of €1.1bn and a team of 27 people. Their intimate knowledge of the Dutch investment market enables Tunstall to underwrite loans at up to 80% LTV. In addition, Hugh Fraser, M7 Real Estate’s Head of Capital Markets, based in Amsterdam, oversees the asset management of the credit assets for the Fund.
