LAWFUEL – Law News Network – Lovells has advised Deutsche Annington Immobilien GmbH (DAIG) on a €5.416 billion multi-family commercial mortgage-backed securitisation of part of their residential housing portfolio. The deal is the largest ever German commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) issue. It follows DAIG’s acquisition in 2005 of German property group Viterra from E.On for €6.5 billion, on which Lovells also advised. The deal closed on 3 August 2006.
The securitisation vehicle, German Residential Asset Note Distributor PLC, is backed by assets valued at €8.1 billion, which comprise 164,365 flats in 32,178 buildings, 1,037 commercial units, 18,722 parking spaces and 19,338 garages. The notes will be issued in six tranches maturing in 2016. Barclays Capital and Citigroup arranged the securitisation.
Lovells originally advised DAIG when it acquired 150,000 flats via the Viterra acquisition in August 2005. This remains the largest real estate and private equity transaction in Germany and was, at the time, the largest ever private equity deal in continental Europe.
Lovells fielded a substantial and experienced Anglo-German team to advise DAIG on the securitisation led by partners David Hudd (securitisation and head of finance), Mark Donald (leveraged finance), Stephan Geibel (tax structuring), Philipp Grzimek (corporate), Katlen Bloecker (finance) and Bernard Kuhn (real estate). Further details of the full Lovells team can be found at the end of this press release. Clifford Chance advised Barclays Capital/Citigroup.
Commenting on the deal, David Hudd, said:
“We are delighted to have advised DAIG on what is a landmark securitisation. It is the largest ever German CMBS deal and an international team of Lovells lawyers were involved in bringing about this successful completion.”
Mark Donald added:
“This has been a challenging transaction over the past few months, but that is exactly what we are here for – to advise and assist our clients in successfully closing highly structured and complex transactions such as this and to try and make the process as smooth as possible. It has been a real pleasure to work for DAIG on this deal and the original financing of the Viterra acquisition last summer. ”
Stephan Geibel noted:
“The close co-operation and integrated approach between the tax structuring team, the finance teams and the corporate and real estate specialists has helped immensely to meet the ambitious timetables for the pre-securitisation reorganisation and the securitisation. In transactions like these a seamless full-service approach saves significant time and adds enormous value to the benefit of the client.”
Notes for editor
Transaction team for DAIG deal
Lovells was able to draw on a vast pool of talent across both its London and German offices to enable a successful closing of this transaction, including:
Securitisation, London:
David Hudd (Partner and Head of Finance), Julian Craughan, Kevin Ng, Daniel Bingham and Richard Brown
International Finance, London:
Mark Donald (partner), Prisca Lo (partner), Sam Hutchinson, Ian Drake, Simon Babar, Tom Richards and Jennifer Dickey
International Finance, Germany:
Katlen Bloecker (partner), Chris McLaughlin, Stephanie Witzke, Ludwig von Moltke and Birthe Wagner
Tax structuring, Germany:
Stephan Geibel (partner), Werner Geisselmeier, Heiko Gemmel and Ingmar Doerr
Corporate, Germany:
Philipp Grzimek (partner), Christiane Gans and Daniela Barthels
