FINANCE: Brockton Capital has kicked off a search for up to £300m of debt to refinance the UK industrial portfolio it has amassed with asset manager and joint venture partner Dunedin Property.
The pair have appointed JLL to undertake the process, which has been codenamed Project Frame. The opportunity has been offered to a select number of whole-loan as well as senior and mezzanine debt providers.
A leverage level of 75% loan-to-value is being sought with a term of close to five years.
The fiercely competitive financing market will afford Brockton and Dunedin the opportunity to secure cheap debt and take cash out of the portfolio.
The two firms teamed up in December 2012 with an initial target to buy £150m of secondary industrial assets, though that was later expanded and the portfolio now totals close to £400m.
Its assets include the Styx portfolio, which it bought from M7 Real Estate in July last year for £50.3m; the Partridge portfolio, which it bought for £230m in October last year from Columbus Capital Management; and 41 assets from the Hansteen UK Industrial Property Unit Trust, which were acquired for £110.5m last November.
In January it sold six assets totalling 1.6m sq ft, called the Spanish portfolio, for £52m to Cording Group.
Brockton’s investments are being made via its Brockton Capital Fund II, which closed in 2010 with £500m of equity. The private equity fund manager began fundraising for its third fund in May last year, also targeting £500m. The value add/opportunity fund, as with its previous funds, will have a UK focus.
david.hatcher@estatesgazette.com
