FINANCE: HIG Capital’s real estate division, Bayside Capital, has teamed up with private equity firm Anacap Financial Partners and Deutsche Bank to buy a €495m (£391m) Romanian loan portfolio.
The purchase of non-performing and sub-performing loans was acquired from Volksbank Romania and comprises more than 500 loans backed by a mix of primarily residential and commercial real estate.
The deal is the largest of its kind in Romania to date, and came about because of the continuing pressure on European financial institutions to restructure and divest assets in order to strengthen their balance sheets and comply with new capital requirements.
This is HIG Capital’s eleventh real estate investment in Europe since the start of 2013, targeting “small/midcap opportunities with a meaningful value-added component”.
Last month, Bayside completed its first deal in the Italian property market, investing in a non-performing loan portfolio through an Italian securitisation.
Bayside Capital’s UK managing director, Ahmed Hamdani, said: “The purchase underlines Bayside Capital’s capability to seamlessly execute transactions in a complex asset class requiring deep understanding of consumer and corporate debt in local markets.
He said the transaction “demonstrates HIG’s commitment to the continental Europe market and to growing its European real estate and NPL business further”.
bridget.o’connell@estatesgazette.com
