CIM Group Expands Real Estate Credit Business to Europe
London-Based Team to Leverage CIM Group’s Approximately $10Billion Credit Platform to Invest in Whole Loans and Core Mezzanine Loans
LOS ANGELES & LONDON—March 14, 2023– CIM Group, a community-focused real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender and developer, announced today that it has expanded its approximately$10 billion Real Estate Debt Solutions platform to Europe, with initial plans to originate primarily whole loans on transitional assets as well as core mezzanine loans across the U.K. and key Western European countries.
CIM Group is targeting loan sizes of between £75 million and £200 million for whole loans and between £20 million and £50 million for core mezzanine loans, which will initially be made under the firm’s existing fund mandates. The European credit strategy expects to expand to also include ground-up development financings in the future.
CIM Group established a London office in2021. The firm is currently adding to its local credit team, which will be supported by more than 30 credit professionals based in the U.S.
The European Real Estate Debt Solutions business is a natural extension of CIM Group’s successful U.S.-based debt solutions business, which provided more than $3.8 billion in commercial real estate loans last year. CIM Group seeks to capitalize on the opportunity in Europe, where more than €150 billion of debt across European property firms is estimated to mature by 2025 and the availability of capital from traditional bank sources is more difficult to obtain in light of market conditions as well as regulatory requirements. The company intends on working with European borrowers to bridge this funding gap by providing flexible capital.
“CIM Group’s vertically-integrated platform with experience across market cycles gives us an advantage as we enter the European private real estate credit market and allocate existing capital from our $10 billion lending platform,” said Richard Ressler, Co-Founder and Principal of CIM Group. “We are already leveraging our strong sponsor relationships as well as in-house expertise across development, leasing, property management and capital markets to underwrite business and development plans for high-quality assets in key European markets, and our growing European team is already evaluating opportunities to meet the demand for private debt capital in this attractive region.”
CIM Group entered the Western European real estate market in October 2021 with the acquisition of Cathedral Square, a three-building office campus in Guildford, United Kingdom. The company’s London-based investment team pursues a value-add strategy targeting well-located office, residential, retail and logistics properties in select metropolitan markets that have strong demographics, are well served by public transportation and have significant knowledge-based anchors which may be underpinned by academia, scientific research, intellectual property development, or technology hubs.
About CIM Group
CIM is a community-focused real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender and developer. Since 1994, CIM has sought to create value in projects and positively impact the lives of people in communities across the Americas by delivering more than $60 billion of essential real estate and infrastructure projects. CIM’s diverse team of experts applies its broad knowledge and disciplined approach through hands-on management of real assets from due diligence to operations through disposition. CIM strives to make a meaningful difference in the world by executing key environmental, social and governance(ESG) initiatives and enhancing each community in which it invests. For more information, visit www.cimgroup.com.