Wells Fargo has financed AEW Europe’s purchase of Hampshire shopping centre Festival Place with a £174m senior loan.
The US bank completed on the deal just before Christmas, extending the fund manager a five-year loan for its £290m purchase of the Basingstoke mall from TH Real Estate in September.
The relatively low leverage of 60%, along with the strong catchment of Basingstoke and potential for improvements in the asset are understood to have made the cost to AEW’s client relatively low at just below 200bps over Libor.
Wells Fargo was the sole underwriter, but it is expected to syndicate the loan, as it did with other transactions in 2015.
AEW Europe bought the 1m sq ft mall on behalf of the Teacher Retirement Scheme of Texas, having fought off competition from Savills Investment Management and Capital & Regional. It includes 175 shops and a 2,770-space car park.
The facility rounded off a successful year for Wells Fargo in Europe, where it is looking to increase its presence to a level equivalent to that in the US, where it has been the largest lender in real estate for six years running.
Its book has been bolstered by deals across a range of sectors as well as being involved in complex takeover deals and development.
Most notable was its £425m loan to finance Lone Star’s takeover of Quintain Estates and a £150m development loan to Argent for its King’s Cross scheme, N1.
mike.cobb@estatesgazette.com
