News
Bad property loans at RBS treble
Commercial property losses almost trebled last year as the Royal Bank of Scotland reported a full-year loss of £3.6bn for 2009. Click here to read more
Plenty of hurdles still for Lloyds
Banking group saddled with £24bn of bad loans but says worst is over. Click here to read more
Delancey scores banks hat-trick
Delancey buys Castlemore assets and manages ex-Modus mall so Royal Bank and Anglo Irish can recover loans. Click here to read more
North-west banks can ‘pick and choose’
North-west property bankers revealed the new tight terms on which they will work at the North West 2010 Conference organised by Property Week last Thursday. Click here to read more
Yield compression slows capital growth to 1%
Capital growth eased to 1% in January, down from the record 3% rise in December, shows Investment Property Databank’s latest UK Monthly Index. Click here to read more
Global property betters equities and bonds
Shares return 32.7% in 2009, and the US and Singapore lead the pack. Click here to read more
Retail investors go commercial again
An Investment Property Forum survey of independent financial advisers shows that 40% have increased their recommendations to private investors to invest in commercial property in the last three months. Click here to read more
Bank of China leads lenders for US real estate
Bank of China is emerging as one of the largest non-US banks investing in the troubled US commercial property sector, and its local bankers are scouring the market for new deals. Click here to read more
Hypo set to create biggest German ‘bad bank’
Hypo Real Estate, the German lender nationalised as a result of the financial crisis, plans to create what could be the country’s biggest 'bad bank', spinning off up to €210bn of assets in a step towards an anticipated return to private ownership. Click here to read more
HSH Nordbank in UK retreat
German bank HSH Nordbank is to close its UK property lending arm and start winding down its operations to focus on its core German lending division. Click here to read more
Fitch: banks’ 2011 loans timebomb
European banks’ exposure to commercial property will remain a “material credit issue” in 2010 and become a “particular concern” in 2011 and 2012, when a high volume of property loans fall due, ratings agency Fitch warned this week. Click here to read more
Bank buyout
Landesbank Berlin buys out senior lenders to Goldman Sachs London HQ to protect position.
German bank Landesbank Berlin (LBB) has taken control of the debt secured against Goldman Sachs’ London headquarters after buying out three senior lenders in an innovative bid to protect its position.Click here to read more
HSBC banker warns of 'wrong sort' of property recovery
Guy Morrell sees signs that improved performance could be short lived Given the experience of the past two years, one would think fund managers would be happy with any recovery in the property market, no matter how small or what shape. Click here to read more
CFS plans to wind down Britannia's high-risk loans
Co-operative Financial Services has placed £9.3bn of potentially problematic loans made by the Britannia Building Society into a specialist vehicle called Optimum. CFS said it planned to wind down the Optimum loan book, which includes high-risk self-certification and buy-to-let mortgages. Click here to read more
RBS to ring-fence £39bn in APS
Royal Bank of Scotland will put £39bn of its £91bn commercial property loans into the government's asset protection scheme, the bank revealed last Friday. It also plansto reduce its UK property loan book from £43bn to £30bn over the next five years -a 27% drop. Click here to read more
Lehman pair in Euro debt play
Two former top Lehman Brothers bankers, Natalie Howard and James Wright, have set up a new business to invest in the real estate debt markets across Europe. Click here to read more
Ex-Tishman boss adds muscle to Bar Cap workout
Mark Kingston is latest property professional to be enlisted to help banks repair property loan books Tishman Speyer’s former UK head Mark Kingston is advising Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank, on the management of its £5bn European property loan book. Click here to read more
Goldman's back
Investment bank leviathan ready to spend $6.3bn — and says UK is good value. Goldman Sachs has amassed $6.3bn of equity to invest in real estate worldwide, which will include a return to the UK real estate investment market for the first time in five years. Click here to read more
Helical raises the bar at Little Britain
Mike Slade’s company to manage City office complex at 200 Aldersgate. Helical Bar is on the verge of a return to the City of London office market. Click here to read more
Flowers cries foul over Hypo buyout
Funds advised by US private equity group JC Flowers & Co have taken legal action to try to prevent the full nationalisation of Hypo Real Estate. Click here to read more
The banker: return to lending discipline
Easy credit is a thing of the past.Banks are not lending and many people hope for a magical “big bang” solution. I’m not sure why, given that the 1990s downturn took years to work through. Click here to read more
The banker: limited activity, no surprise
Banks are behaving as expected. There is a feeling between surprise and frustration that more lenders have not foreclosed on loans. It seems strange that such a consensus is emerging, as this is the very activity for which banks received so much criticism in previous recessions. Click here to read more
Savills names top 23 UK commercial property lenders
Savills has named the UK commercial property market’s top lenders for the second half of the year and said the number of banks willing to lend more than £20m has almost doubled to 23 since March. Click here to read more
Bidders queue up as Lloyds sells off £250m Silverburn
Lloyds Banking Group offers “stapled finance” for its Pollock shopping centre. Silverburn, the 1m sq ft shopping mall in Pollock, near Glasgow, was brought to the market this week in the hope of a sale by the end of the year. Click here to read more
Consensual restructuring - the best answer to distressed debt
Following the boom in the property market, which was fuelled by the banks' enthusiasm to provide debt, lenders have been left nursing a hangover consisting of troubled loans. Click here to read more.
EGTV: banking chiefs predict more asset sales but not 'tsunami'
he UK's two largest property lenders have said that the number of assets they brought to the market for sale would increase - but that there would not be a flood of forced sales. Click here to read more.
WestImmo chief says demand for debt in Europe is 'woeful'
While liquidity in the European banking sector is improving, the demand for debt is "woeful", says WestImmo London branch head Peter Denton. Click here to read more.
Great Portland eyes Eurohypo tie-in
West End-focused REIT in talks to join forces over £200m redevelopment. Click here to read more.
What bankers want from property
All borrowers understand the mantra that “cash is king”, but fewer know what makes bankers tick, particularly when negotiating an impaired or defaulted loan. Click here to read more.
Nomura completes Watermark Place deal
Nomura has completed a deal to occupy the whole of Watermark Place office building in the City of London in one of the biggest ever speculative lettings. Click here to read more.
Threadneedle sews up £130m debt facility
The Royal Bank of Scotland and Eurohypo commit to Strategic Fund IV the royal bank of scotland is providing a £65m debt facility to a new Threadneedle property fund, which will invest in the UK. Click here to read more.
BNP Paribas Real Estate: How Banks are Coping with the Road to Recovery
A survey of the banking sector looking at how the banks are coping with 'problem loans' and the issues affecting the commercial property sector. Click here to read more.
Bad property debts at HBOS lead to £4bn loss for Lloyds
Lloyds Banking Group said this morning that impairments in its multi-billion pound commercial property book had peaked. Click here to read more.
Credit Suisse upgrades UK commercial property shares
Credit Suisse has raised its recommendation for UK commercial property shares to ‘overweight’ because ‘the UK economic momentum is better than any other developed country'. Click here to read more.
Survey reveals little optimism for finance sector
Despite recent "glimmers of encouragement" for the property industry the gloomy outlook for the financial services sector provide little cause for optimism. Click here to read more.
So what's the workout plan then?
Andy Smith is a Tax Director at PwC while colleague Mark Batten acts a Restructuring Partner. As distressed bankers seek a viable strategy for their distressed loan portfolios, Andy and Mark offer guidance on workouts. Click here to read more.
Cannes Canned
MIPIM 2009 was decidely different. Depending who you believe, attendance was down between 30-50% with less than 7,000 passes sold for "The Bunker". On the plus side, decision-makers were unusually in evidence as the emphasis was, even more so this year, on trying to do business. Click here to read more.
Villains or Scapegoats
Move over Simon Cowell, there's a new pariah in town. Where once it was lawyers, estate agents or traffic wardens, bankers are now Public Enemy No 1. Click here to read more.
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Andrew Goodbody The APB President gives his regular overview of current issues affecting our members together with a round up of feedback from members. |
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Margot Waddup Margot keeps us up to date on the APB’s events diary |
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Guest Blog Jane Roberts from Real Estate Capital magazine considers the recovery in property lending in 2010 |
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| All events are open to members. The events secretary will supply details and costs of each event. Booking is on a first come first serve basis. Those events that are open to non-members will be announced seperately. Members log in for more details. | |
| March | We will be hosting a joint evening seminar with RICS during the first week of march, date and details to be confirmed in due course. |
| March | Not Going to MIPIM Drinks. Corney & Barrow Paternoster Square. All members welcome. Contact board members Tim Pygott or Graham Stenning for more information. |
| April | Joint Evening Seminar with RICS, details to follow. |
| May | Margot & Manja Networking Drinks at Corney & Barrow CityPoint from 5.30pm |
| May | APB Pumble. Application form and details will follow in due course. |
| June | Evening Seminar, date and details to be confirmed |
| July | Young Property Bankers Networking Event, details to follow. |
| September | Annual Seminar, date to be confirmed |
| October | APB AGM & Social Event |
| November | APB Dinner |