Goldman Sachs has provided Sunderland AFC chairman and private equity veteran Ellis Short with finance for his €1bn (£798m) Mars portfolio buy.
The US investment bank has financed Short’s new fund management business, Kildare Partners, with a senior loan of circa €700m to buy a portfolio of distressed assets from Deutsche Bank.
The finance reflects a loan-to- value of around 70% and is understood to have been priced at around 400 basis points with syndication marked as its exit.
Goldmans is expected to start the syndication process to rival banks, which could include ING, GE Capital and AIG, imminently.
The bank has been competing for a number of European tickets including a €430m refinancing of part of the 3.5m sq ft Porta Nuova development in Milan for Hines, but was not part of the club deal that has emerged.
It is also working on two securitisations, including its second Italian CMBS, secured against a group of Blackstone properties, and is reported to be in early stage preparation for a Dutch and German hotel CMBS.
The bank recently bulked up its European real estate finance and special situations teams by recruiting three executive directors including BAML’s Jan Janssen, and two associates.
Kildare bought the Mars portfolio, which includes 26 assets and debt, in an off-market deal in May. The office and hotel assets in Germany include trophy Le Meridien hotels in Frankfurt and Munich.
Deutsche Bank’s property fund arm DB Real Estate sold the original 56-strong portfolio to Amsterdam-listed Eurocastle Investment in 2007 for €2.1bn with the bank providing a €1bn loan alongside a €550m junior loan.
Following a restructuring in 2011, junior lender Arminius took control of a 75% stake of a reduced package of assets and later took control of the last 25%.
The loan facility against the portfolio was extended to July 2014 but Deutsche Bank initiated insolvency proceedings for the portfolio last summer.
All parties declined to comment.
bridget.o’connell@estatesgazette.com
