Värde Partners has entered exclusive talks to buy £305m of property that was formerly part of Glenn Maud’s Propinvest empire.
Värde has topped a shortlist that includes Colony Capital to buy the bulk of the Gemini Portfolio. Asset manager APAM is to work with Värde on the deal. The purchase price reflects a sub-9% net initial yield. The parcel comprises 24 of the original 36 properties in the Gemini vehicle.
Administrators at Deloitte, together with CBRE Loan Servicing, instructed CBRE to market the portfolio in May, following a handful of individual sales over the past two years.
In 2006, the portfolio was valued at £1.2bn but by 2012 it had crashed to less than half the value of the £918.9m Barclays Capital loan which it secured. Deloitte was appointed by CBRE Loan Servicing when it called in the loan secured against Gemini in 2012 in one of the most high-profile administrations of the recession.
After Deloitte was appointed, the outstanding loan balance, due in July 2016, was £850m.
The valuation of the portfolio prior to the securitisation of the loan is now the subject of a high-profile legal case.
