Thor Equities, the global urban real estate developer and management firm, has acquired prime retail parade on Boulevard de la Croisette in Cannes from the liquidating KanAm grundinvest Fund, financed by a €50m Helaba senior loan and a €21m mezzanine loan from LaSalle Investment Management.
This is Thor Equities’ first French commercial real estate investment. The 65 Croisette’s boutiques are situated on the world-famous Boulevard de la Croisette, between the first-class Carlton and Martinez hotels.
The total sales area of 2,300 sqm is fully leased to the eight luxury brands Burberry, Yves Saint Laurent, Emilio Pucci, Jimmy Choo, Balenciaga, Brioni, Paule Ka and Bottega Veneta.
Helaba is acting as arranger, sole lender and hedge provider for the senior loan.
Thor Equities, owner of the Burlington Arcade in London, is a strategic investor in prime retail properties around the world.
Amy Klein Aznar, head of debt investments and special situations at LaSalle Investment Management, said: “LaSalle is delighted to have provided Thor Equities with mezzanine debt financing on this high quality retail acquisition in Cannes. This transaction fits very well into our highly active Debt Investment Programme. We look forward to working with all parties again in the near future.”
LaSalle’s debt strategy was set up in 2010 to provide tailor-made solutions covering a wide range of situations in which a sponsor may want or need additional financing, which also includes whole loan, stretched senior and mezzanine finance, capital expenditure funding, loan acquisition funding and preferred equity investments.
Over the past 12 months, LaSalle’s debt strategies team has invested circa €300m. Typically, LaSalle is targeting single loan amounts of €10m to over €100m for a term of three to five years.
KanAm announced the liquidation of its open ended fund on 29 February, citing the uncertainty on the investor side as a result of the euro crisis and the public debate on the future viability of open-ended property funds in recent months.
A flood of liquidations of German open-ended (GOE) funds over the next four-and-a-half years will see as much as €18.4bn in European real estate come to market in forced sales, as the end of the country’s open-ended fund market nears, DTZ Research has reported.
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