Blackstone has turned to Bank of America Merrill Lynch to finance a chunk of the €1.9bn (£1.36bn) of European assets it is buying from GE Capital.
The investment bank has written a series of loans totalling more than €600m to finance Blackstone’s purchase of assets in the UK, Spain, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The loan-to-value ratio of the loans is close to 70%, putting the value of the assets financed close to €850m.
The remaining portfolio, which is valued in the region of €1bn, is predominantly located in France and will be financed separately later in the year.
The UK loan issued by BAML is close to £300m and is secured against a variety of industrial and office assets, including the 60,000 sq ft office development at 98 Fetter Lane, EC4, and 10 Lloyds Avenue, EC3.
Blackstone’s acquisition of the €1.9bn of assets was part of a $23bn (£15.7bn) deal struck in April to buy the majority of GE Capital’s global real estate business worldwide, including loans, alongside Wells Fargo.
The deal saw Wells Fargo take on a $9bn performing loan book, 79% of which was in the US and Canada with the remaining $1.7bn made up of UK loans.
Blackstone also bought $9.2bn of loans secured against US, Mexican and Australian assets from GE.
