Private equity firms Patron and TPG look set to take control of troubled Dutch property company Uni-Invest in a test case for debt workout.
The partners were competing with a bid from Valad Europe to restructure Uni-Invest, which has a portfolio of 203 secondary and tertiary Dutch office and industrial assets and €603m of securitised debt.
At a meeting in Amsterdam this morning, three of the four classes of noteholders in the distressed Uni-Invest CMBS – the Bs, Cs and Ds – voted in favour of appointing Valad as asset manager as part of a consensual restructuring of the heavily indebted Dutch company.
But the controlling class A noteholders voted against accepting the consensual restructuring proposal which would have seen the CMBS structure kept in place for a further four years while Valad undertook an accelerated disposal of the company’s portfolio.
This proposal was always expected to be popular with the subordinated investors because it offered them some chance of recouping at least part of their investment.
The class A noteholders alone now take part in a second vote on whether to accept rival proposals by Patron in partnership with TPG.
This “credit bid” proposal is expected to win the required 75% support from class A noteholders this afternoon.
If successful, Patron and TPG will take control of Uni-Invest in a €360m cash and debt bid. They would buy the company’s defaulted senior loan and immediately return 40% – or €144m – of the outstanding note balance to the class A noteholders.
The rest of the debt would be restructured and a four to six-year workout undertaken.
bridget.o’connell@estatesgazette.com
