Starwood European Real Estate Finance Ltd (SWEF) 25 April 2017 NOT FOR RELEASE, DISTRIBUTION OR PUBLICATION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, TO U.S. PERSONS OR IN, INTO OR FROM THE UNITED STATES, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, SOUTH AFRICA, JAPAN, NEW ZEALAND OR ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH JURISDICTION Starwood European Real Estate Finance Limited: Quarterly Factsheet Publication Starwood European Real Estate Finance Limited (the 'Company') announces that the factsheet for the first quarter ended on 31 March 2017 is available at: www.starwoodeuropeanfinance.com Extracted text of the commentary is set out below: 'Investment Portfolio at 31 March 2017
(1) Euro balances translated to sterling at 31 March 2017 exchange rates. Dividend Portfolio commentary As at 31 March, the average maturity of the Group's £370.7 million loan book was 3.4 years with £12.2 million of cash and substantial liquidity lines of £50.0 million available to use for existing commitments of £42.8 million and new investments. The gross annualised total return of the invested loan portfolio is 8.1 per cent. The following portfolio activity occurred in the first quarter of 2017: New loans Irish School, Dublin: On 31 March 2017 the Group advanced a EUR18.85 million 3-year floating rate whole loan to support the acquisition and repositioning of a South Dublin office building in the Republic of Ireland. The building will be converted to educational use with a new lease to a premium global education company. The sponsor, Barry O'Callaghan, is a highly regarded local investor with deep experience in the education sector. The transaction represents a continuation of the Group's lending strategy in Ireland, and adds to the diversity of its portfolio with its first loan in the educational sector. Hotel, Barcelona: On 31 March 2017 the Group advanced a EUR46.0 million 4-year floating rate whole loan to finance the acquisition of a 4-star, 240-key hotel in central Barcelona's 22@ district. The borrower is a partnership between institutional-quality investors with track records of successful hotel acquisitions throughout Europe. The hotel is well-positioned to benefit from the sponsors' active asset management strategy in a Barcelona market with appealing hospitality performance metrics and high barriers to entry. The transaction represents the Group's entry to the Spanish market, a large market opportunity with attractive real estate fundamentals and macroeconomic growth trends. Industrial Portfolio, Central and Eastern Europe: On 30 March 2017 the Group committed to provide a EUR68.5 million whole loan for a portfolio of industrial assets located across Central and Eastern Europe. The 3-year floating rate loan represents the opportunity to further diversify geographically and support a strong sponsor with a proven track record. EUR26.5 million of the loan was funded on 30 March 2017 with the remaining commitment expected to be drawn-down in the coming weeks. Repayments Industrial Portfolio, Netherlands: The Group received full repayment of the Industrial Portfolio, Netherlands loan as a result of the sale of the portfolio, in line with the Sponsor's business plan. Whilst we do anticipate some further repayments in the coming year we expect the quantum and pace to be slower than we experienced in the first quarter of 2017. Together with a number of opportunities currently under review, we anticipate, if they proceed, being able to raise further equity later in the year. All current opportunities remain, however, subject to final due diligence, documentation and Investment Manager Board approval. Hedging Revolving credit facility Market commentary As a general theme, we have seen lending terms remain stable across Europe over the past few months with little recent change to risk appetite or pricing. In respect of the UK in particular, whilst there was an initial widening of spreads in the run up to and immediately post the Brexit referendum, the lending approach has since stabilised. In total, there are over EUR2 billion of active development financing requirements on our radar. Whilst we anticipate that the current market limitations on the availability of development financing present an opportunity to earn good risk adjusted returns, we will maintain our considered risk return approach and only pursue opportunities where we can achieve the best combination of return, structure, and sponsor and project quality. In addition, we have seen a number of processes where the borrower has run a highly competitive and lengthy process and then not proceeded with the financing so we are wary of committing the Group's resources to these kind of processes unless there is a high degree of certainty around a deal advancing. In the capital markets, the Brookfield Student CMBS closed in March and was the first new European CMBS issuance since June 2016. The securitisation comprised a £215 million single tranche, BBB rated bond secured by Brookfield's UK student accommodation portfolio. The LTV was 53 per cent, with a 7-year tenor and all in pricing of 2.66 per cent (being 185bps over the benchmark gilt). Whilst the transaction attracted a lot of attention and we do expect to see further CMBS activity in markets such as Italy and the Netherlands, CMBS issuance is still a small overall contributor to European commercial real estate debt. According to Debtwire's CMBS April 2017 monthly summary, the total CMBS issuance for 2016 was only EUR885 million and outstanding total CMBS in Europe was EUR32.7 billion. This is in marked contrast to new acquisition commercial real estate ('CRE') financing which was estimated by CBRE to be EUR116 billion for 2016 and a total outstanding CRE debt at EUR1.1 trillion. In the syndication market, Dealogic figures published for CRE debt syndication showed a sharp decline between 2015 to 2016 driven by lower transaction volumes - UK syndication volumes fell by 51 per cent to £9.8 billion and EMEA as a whole fell 39 per cent to EUR48.6 billion with the decline attributed to a lower volume of larger acquisitions that would require syndicated financing. In contrast, in 2017 we have already seen a number of larger transactions close or launch: Pradera completing a EUR900 million acquisition of a pan European retail portfolio; the EUR1.28 billion acquisition by M7 and Blackstone of the Hansteen portfolio; and Blackstone's EUR3.3 billion acquisition of the Office First and Couer Defense portfolio is currently being brought to the market with an expected debt requirement of EUR1.8 billion. We said in the December factsheet that we expected to see opportunities in Spain, Ireland and CEE and we have closed loans in each of these areas in the first quarter. Whilst the Dublin school financing is the Group's fifth transaction in Ireland, the loans in Spain and CEE are our first investments in these jurisdictions. We continue to see a good level of pipeline and, given market dynamics, expect that the largest number of new opportunities are likely to be in the UK, Ireland and Spain. We are, however, also seeing investment opportunities all across Europe including early stage pipeline deals in France and Germany. Share Price / NAV at 31 March 2017
Key Portfolio Statistics at 31 March 2017
(1) Calculated on loans drawn at the reporting date using the exchange rates applicable when the loans were funded.
*excludes any permitted extensions. Note that borrowers may elect to repay loans before contractual maturity.
*the currency split refers to the underlying loan currency, however the capital on all non-sterling exposure is hedged back to sterling.' For further information, please contact: Robert Peel Duncan MacPherson The Group's assets are managed by Starwood European Finance Partners Limited, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of the Starwood Capital Group. |
Language: | English |
ISIN: | GG00B79WC100 |
Category Code: | PFU |
TIDM: | SWEF |
LEI Code: | 5493004YMVUQ9Z7JGZ50 |
Sequence No.: | 4093 |
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End of Announcement | EQS News Service |
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566861Â Â 25-Apr-2017Â