BW GLOBAL Buying Real Estate in Europe
BW GLOBAL Targeting Commercial Real Estate in Europe with a Focus on Acquiring Trophy Office and Hotel Assets in Spain and France
Online, April 17, 2013 (Newswire.com) - BW Global has announced today that it has begun actively seeking opportunities in Europe to acquire prestigious office and hotel assets that fit their long-term investment strategy.
Cushman and Wakefield (Madrid), which are advisors to BW Global, understands that the group has a particular interest in Spain and France and more specifically in key assets located in the "Golden Triangles" of Paris and Madrid. It is reported that the company will "seek to capitalize on the substantial varying degrees of disequilibrium in these commercial real estate markets today".
Robert Boudreaux, the Managing Director for BW Global stated that "the opportunities in both of these markets are very different and investors need to carefully adapt their acquisition and management strategies not just to the specific markets but to the individual assets as well." He added that there are new challenges for institutional investors trying to get deals done in these markets.
"It is not just a question of having substantial capital to buy and manage the assets. Investors need to optimize the debt and equity structures on acquisitions to accommodate their tolerance for risk and ultimately achieve their target returns," says Boudreaux.
The management of BW Global fully understands these challenges. "Investors need to structure acquisitions starting with an initial focus on the debt portion" says Joseph Zappala, the Chairman of BW Global. "If you don't provide superior credit quality - hence limiting capital consumption for lenders - you are not going to complete a transaction with debt". Joseph Zappala was the former US Ambassador to Spain and has been a successful commercial real estate investor over the last 40 years.
Traditional long-term commercial mortgage debt is almost non-existent in Spain and Southern Europe and is hard to obtain in France and Northern Europe.
BW Global did not indicate a target size for the portfolio but did state that an important part of their investment strategy will be the natural diversification that results from having a relatively substantial number of properties.