Financing deals, updates
Among notable financings of the past month, pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and HSH Nordbank lent German investor RFR Group more than €200m to refinance the 47-storey hotel and office asset WestendGate opposite the trade fair in Frankfurt. Pbb acted as lead manager in the club deal, with both banks taking equal portions of the loan.
RFR already owned half of the property since 2012 and the loan enables the group to acquire 100% of the asset. British investor Stenprop previously owned the other half.
“We see great potential for the property, so we decided to buy the entire asset,” said Alexander Koblischek of RFR.
Around 35,000 sqm of the property is used as hotel space, most of which is occupied by a 590-room Marriott hotel. Success Hotel Management also operates the Aparthotel Adagio on site. Around 17,000 sqm of the space comprises offices.
And, in Berlin, local bank Berlin Hyp is providing €220m in financing for the 90m Stream office building being developed in Berlin by Austria's Signa group, and says it is the sole financier of the project in the Mediaspree area.
On completion in 2021, the 50,000 sqm tower will be fully let to online retailer Zalando, Signa has announced. Located next to the Mercedes-Benz Arena, the 24-storey building is being developed by Signa Development Selection, part of the private Vienna-based real estate and retailing group founded and run by one of Austria's most high-profile entrepreneurs, René Benko.
“Stream will become part of a modern Berlin’s cityscape," said Gero Bergmann, Berlin Hyp management board member in a release. "We are always happy when we finance in Berlin, our home base. In this case, we are also proud to be part of this modern urban design with Signa and look forward to the upcoming ground-breaking ceremony."
Separately, specialist commercial property financier Aareal Bank provided a five-year financing of €447m for a European hotel portfolio managed by Swedish hotel property company Pandox.
The portfolio comprises a total of 14 hotels in the upper full-service segment, in central locations in Austria, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. Comprising a total of approximately 3,600 rooms, the properties include the Crowne Plaza Brussels - Le Palace, the Radisson Blu in Cologne, and the Park Hotel Amsterdam.
The Wiesbaden-based bank said it had already provided a €270m financing for a part of the portfolio - excluding the Belgian hotels - in December 2016. Building on the existing business relationship, Aareal Bank said it was now in a position to finance the expansion of the portfolio to include the seven Belgian hotels, and extend the facility.
'We are delighted about the confidence Pandox has shown by expanding the portfolio with us and extending the facility by another five years,' said Christof Winkelmann, member of the management board of Aareal Bank. 'The exposure underlines our expertise regarding complex pan-European hotel portfolios covering multiple jurisdictions.'
Aareal Bank, which has the greatest concentration of lending to foreign companies on its books among the big German lenders, reported new business of €6.1bn for the first nine months of 2018, above the same period last year, and raised its target for 2018 to between €8bn and €9bn. The bank said it expects its aggregate credit portfolio volume to reach up to €28bn at the end of 2018.