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Sunday July 26 2009
The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) is preparing to launch a fund
with a European partner that will offer high-interest loans to European
property companies that are struggling to secure funding because of the
global squeeze on credit.
NBAD and Evans Randall, a British
investment bank and private equity group, will initially invest about
US$20 million (Dh73.4m) of their own capital to seed the new European
Real Estate Mezzanine Opportunity Fund, said Shiraz Habib, the head of
product development at NBAD’s investment banking group.
The fund would sell 80 per cent of its initial capital to investors, Mr Habib said.
He
said it would make loans to property investors primarily in the UK and
Germany and other markets in the continent. NBAD, the Emirates’
second-largest bank by assets, plans to raise as much as $500m by next
year from Gulf institutional investors and individuals.
Mr Habib
said the fund’s focus on investing in mature economies, with less
volatility than emerging markets, would help diversify the bank’s
investments.
“There are always more rewards in volatile markets but the risk is
also higher,” he said. “We are going into markets where we feel there
has been enough correction.”
Investors are returning to the UK
property market to capitalise on attractive valuations, after house
prices fell 15 per cent in the past year, according to figures from the
home lender Halifax.
Commercial property values have also
fallen sharply, but many lenders are reluctant to increase their
exposure to what is still perceived as a risky asset class.
The funding gap has increased demand for so-called mezzanine
finance, halfway between debt and equity, which provides quick finance
to property investors who cannot met their capital needs through
conventional bank loans.
Mezzanine lenders often charge interest
at more than double the rate of conventional products because of the
higher risk profile of the loan. Before the credit crunch, investors
had little difficulty sourcing highly leveraged funds to finance the
construction of property developments.
“Now is a reasonable time to enter into mezzanine financing but that
doesn’t mean you should not be prudent,” said Giorgio Questa, a
professor at Cass Business School, part of City University in London.
“If they do it with the right people and right knowledge it could be a profitable business.”
Gulf
banks should try to tap new revenue streams overseas to compensate for
declining levels of activity at home, according to Deepak Tolani, a
banking analyst at Al Mal Capital.
Source: The National
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