Stephen Vernon’s Green Property has teamed up with US private equity giant TPG Capital to launch a €900m (£746m) vehicle to buy distressed property from UK and Irish banks.
The new venture, Green TPG Partners, said that it planned to target commercial real estate opportunities in the UK and Ireland and would “actively seek to partner with government agencies and financial institutions to help manage their exposure to the sector”.
Vernon said: “This is a very powerful combination of capital and experience which will enable us to acquire and reposition underlying properties.
“We believe that the current economic climate represents both a challenging operating environment within the real estate sector, but also a time of opportunity given the extent of the dislocation.”
Equity for the new venture, said to be around £250m, is expected to be provided by TPG, while debt will come from the banks with which it partners, including Ireland’s bad-debt bank Nama.
Nama this week began scrutinising proposals from the first tranche of developers whose loans were passed to the agency last month.
Last year, Green acquired a number of properties from cash-strapped Irish banks, including a €1bn portfolio from Anglo Irish and a £500m package from Allied Irish Banks.
The tie-up with Green marks TPG’s first foray into the UK and Ireland.
