GE Real Estate has acquired a €642 million portfolio of A piece and whole loans in a performing pan-European loan book from Credit Suisse.  The transaction further demonstrates GE Real Estate’s unique ability to identify, underwrite and execute acquisitions of significant loan portfolios on a pan-European basis.

The highly diversified portfolio comprises ten loans on attractive loan to value ratios to a group of high quality borrowers. The underlying properties, spread across a range of asset classes, are located in Germany, Switzerland, the UK and Spain.  

This represents GE Real Estate’s third major investment in European loan portfolios in recent months, following acquisitions of a €2.4 billion of commercial property loans from Bradford & Bingley in November 2007 and a €1.3 billion portfolio from Capmark Europe in April 2008.  Including today’s acquisition, GE Real Estate has invested more than €4.5 billion in European debt portfolios since November 2007.

Commenting on the acquisition, Michael Rowan, Managing Director of GE Real Estate UK, said:

“The successful acquisition of our third loan portfolio in only eight months demonstrates the value we see in this type of transaction.  Our multi-jurisdictional platform provides us with substantial strength in underwriting and executing acquisitions of attractively priced portfolios and is proving to be a differentiating factor in the current market, showcasing GE Real Estate’s ability to execute on large and complex transactions.”