Private equity firms Patron and TPG are to take control of troubled Dutch property company Uni-Invest in a test case for debt workout.
The partners have won the backing of debt investors for their plans to restructure Uni-Invest, which has a portfolio of 203 secondary and tertiary Dutch office and industrial assets and €603m of securitised debt.
The “credit bid” proposal from Patron and TPG will see the partners 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.
Patron and TPG won the backing of the controlling class A noteholders this afternoon after the investors rejected rival plans put forward by Valad Europe at a vote this morning.
A consensual restructuring by Valad 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.
The decision ends a 10-month special servicer-led process which sought to protect the value of noteholders’ investment, after the company’s efforts to find additional equity were discontinued in June 2011.
The special servicer, Eurohypo, was advised throughout the process by Cairn Capital.
bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
