Financing partners in the new structure, amounting to more than €320 mln in total, are Hamburg Commercial Bank (HCoB) and Berlin-based FAP.

As part of the redemption of the previous loan, a tranche of the new senior loan facility from HCoB was outplaced. The FAP Balanced Real Estate Financing I Fund took over an unsecured loan of more than €50 mln in a club deal with a Swedish bank. The transaction was arranged and structured by FAP Invest as investment advisor. FAP also acted as facility agent.

'Following the purchase through our joint venture at the end of 2016, the Christie portfolio has evolved into a success story,' said Oliver Herrmann, CEO at Redos Group. 'The successful financial restructuring now is a confirmation of our consistent strategy of unlocking value potential. With the liquidity freed from the successful completion of this refinancing, we are planning to invest in further raising the attractiveness of the locations for potential new tenants.'

'We are very happy with the successful transaction, which will allow us to stabilize the capital structure and execute on strategic initiatives for the portfolio. Above all, we are impressed by the fact that the deal was completed within just six weeks. We saw that the integration of an alternative financing instrument significantly increased the flexibility of the refinancing,' added Diana Shieh, managing director and co-head of Portfolio and Asset Management at Madison International Realty.

The Christie portfolio currently consists of three major hybrid shopping centres: Kaufpark Eiche on the eastern outskirts of Berlin, Havelpark Dallgow on the western outskirts of Berlin, and Brandenburger Einkaufszentrum Wust in the town of Brandenburg an der Havel west of Berlin. These shopping centres have been repositioned and all three have Kaufland, one of Germany’s largest food retailers, as a strong anchor tenant. Last year, the Kaufpark Nickern shopping centre in Dresden was sold, with the divestment prompting the portfolio refinancing.