Macquarie Capital, the investment advisory arm of Australian bank Macquarie, has provided its first senior loan to a real estate firm in Europe.
The platform, which is better known for raising capital from and placing large institutional investors in real estate transactions and ventures, has provided a senior loan of £40 million (€47.6 million; $63 million) to Fizzyliving, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Thames Valley Housing Association, a government group responsible for housing.
The finance, sourced from Macquarie Capital’s balance sheet, will enable Fizzliving to realise its ambition of owning and operating 500 private rented homes in the next two years. Macquarie is also expected to help Fizzliving secure institutional capital with a view to growing the portfolio further following its launch last year.
Fizzyliving is currently in the process of locating and acquiring development sites. The firm has already invested £30 million last year in sites in Epsom and Canning Town, in and around London.
Jack Stephen, finance director and deputy chief executive of the Thames Valley Housing Association, said: “We are encouraged by Macquarie's support for Fizzy and its strategy which vindicates TVHA's decision to invest £30m in securing our initial projects last year.”
“Our next goal is to introduce institutional investment and Macquarie will be working alongside us to achieve this. We know that the appetite is out there from our conversations with other investors who are keen to capitalise on the quantum shift towards the rental sector and Fizzy is ideally placed to benefit from this interest.”
The loan from Macquarie Capital is the second notable transaction in the UK involving the platform to be announced to the market in a matter of days. The firm also brokered a London-focused residential club managed by Grainger, the listed residential property company, and into which Dutch pension fund asset manager Algemene Pensioen Groep (APG) invested £158 million.
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