A buoyant portfolios market continues to drive lending, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch lined up to finance the Tree portfolio.
The bank will provide debt to Tristan Capital Partners, which was selected to buy the assets in July.
Tristan’s European Property Investors Special Opportunities 3 Fund was looking for a facility “at the fuller end of the senior loan scale” and is understood to have secured a facility of more than £100m, at circa 300 basis points, from the group.
The portfolio comprises regional assets once owned by the Noe family, with debt provided by Aviva Commercial Finance. They were sold by receivers at KPMG.
It is the second major portfolio refinancing for BAML, which in April financed Apollo Global Management’s purchase of the £32m Moon portfolio offloaded by Aviva Commercial Finance.
The bank then went on to securitise the senior loan in the £221.5m CMBS, leading to speculation that it might look for a similar exit from the new loans.
A number of other portfolio refinancing opportunities are currently circulating the market.
Colony Capital is looking for finance for its £97m purchase of the Silverbird portfolio being sold by RBS, as is Varde Partners, which is buying the £117m of non-core Highcross assets in Project Hollywood.
Apollo is also currently looking to refinance its South East Office Holdings portfolio, which is managed by M&M Asset Management.
The investment manager wants circa £150m of debt to refinance the £230m portfolio.
The legacy debt comprises a number of loans from various lenders used to buy the assets to build up the portfolio.
All parties declined to comment.
bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
