Investors are showing confidence in real estate as LaSalle Investment Management, the real estate investment manager, raised £150m (€170m) for a new junior loan programme targeting newly originated loans secured against UK properties.
The new capital raise brought the total discretionary capital that the firm has available for junior and mezzanine debt investment in the UK to over £400m.
Amy Aznar, head of special situations, LaSalle Investment Management said: “We are seeing a growing number of opportunities to place junior debt and mezzanine at attractive risk adjusted returns. Many institutional investors see junior and mezzanine debt as attractive satellite strategies to their core real estate portfolios.”
LaSalle’s junior loan programme targets 60-75% loan-to-value loans and will focus on institutional quality underlying real estate, strength of property cash flow, and quality sponsorship.
The firm said that this programme “adds a new dimension” to its existing debt strategy which was set up in 2010 to provide tailor-made solutions covering a wide range of situations in which a sponsor may need additional financing, which also includes high yield mezzanine finance, capital expenditure funding, loan acquisition funding, and preferred equity investments.
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