UBS Asset Management's UK real estate debt fund completed £45 mln (€50 mln) of new lending in the third quarter of the year, taking total committed loans to 120% of equity, the investment manager's Real Estate & Private Markets (REPM) business has revealed.
Q3 saw the UBS Participating Real Estate Mortgage Fund (UBS-PREMF) successfully complete four new investment loans worth £45 mln (€50 mln) to take the total equity committed so far this year to £93.2 mln (€104 mln).
'The successful completion of these recent facilities and the imminent end of UBS-PREMF's investment period has prompted us to progress our thinking about the evolution of our debt platform,' commented Anthony Shayle, head of Real Estate Debt EMEA and senior portfolio manager for UBS-PREMF.
'A gap in the market remains for alternative lenders like UBS-PREMF, with significant sector expertise and a track record of delivering attractive returns to investors. As a result, we're now exploring potential opportunities in a wider European context.'
The completed deals include a £12.6 mln loan over four years to improve the income profile of six serviced office and light industrial business centres in Barnsley, Dudley, Hull, Bootle, Billingham and Leeds; a £9.3 mln term loan over five years for the refinancing of an existing loan on a 52-room hotel in Bicester, Oxford; a £9.1 mln term loan over seven years for the refinancing of an existing loan on a data centre in East London; and a £13.5 mln refinancing facility of seven years for an existing loan on a mixed-use hotel and serviced apartment complex in Tooting, London.
UBS-PREMF has now agreed a total of 21 investment and development loans (including those already repaid) secured over 83 real estate assets across England and Scotland, and currently has a net portfolio size of £201.7 mln (€224 mln). To date, the fund has received £85.8 mln of repayments and cancellations from borrowers.
Overall, it has so far written loans totalling £288 mln (€321 mln), with an aggregate underlying property value of £446 mln and an average loan size of £13.6 mln (€15 mln).