The London branch of Deutsche Bank on Tuesday completed the placing of a £302 mln (EUR 336 mln) Commercial Mortgage Backed Securitisation (CMBS), in the first European CMBS public offering since the onset of the credit crisis in 2007.

The new CMBS issuance is backed by a £302 mln loan made to Blackstone to fund its £480 mln acquisition of the Chiswick Park Estate, a grade-A business park in Chiswick in West London. Blackstone's acquisition was also funded in part by a £60 mln mezzanine loan funded by GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. Chiswick Park comprises nine office buildings let to companies such as Tullow Oil and Paramount Pictures on a 33-acre site.

The facility, packaged in a DECO 2011-CSPK vehicle, has been closely monitored by market participants as it is generally considered to represent the re-launch of the CMBS market in Europe. Charles Roberts, a partner at law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker which advised on the process, said the operation 'is a landmark transaction for the European CMBS market'. 'Hopefully,' he added, 'this transaction will lead the way to the recovery of the CMBS market.'

'The success of this transaction indicates that the CMBS market has the ability to re-emerge as a significant source of debt capital for the European commercial real estate market,' Roberts added.

The deal comprises three publicly-offered tranches. A £235 mln tranche has been rated AAA with a coupon of 1.75% over LIBOR, and there are two higher loan to value tranches of £30 mln, rated AA with a coupon of 2.75% over LIBOR, and £37 mln, rated A-/A tranche with a coupon of 3.75% over LIBOR.

According to market rumours, the AAA notes were 1.1 times oversubscribed, the AA notes 2.7 times and the AAA tranche 1.7 times.