Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises Natixis Asset Management and AEW Europe on structuring its first senior property debt fund

The international law firm Clifford Chance has been advising Natixis Asset Management and AEW Europe on the structuring of  Senior European Loan Fund, a senior property debt fund comprising sub-funds.

Upon being launched this fund realized its first closing and raised 240 M€ against a target of 500 M€. Senior European Loan Fund is invested in senior property debt financing quality property assets such as offices, commercial ventures and logistics located in Europe and mainly in France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The Fund will be active in the primary and secondary property debt markets and its manager will be assisted by the combined skills of Natixis Asset Management's teams and of AEW Europe's property debt specialist managers.

The setting-up of the Senior European Loan Fund comes at a time when traditional bank lending has become harder to find and allows new investors to be exposed to the property loan category assets. By virtue of its structure, the Fund is likely to become involved in the whole range of business opportunities that may come onto the property-loans market. Its working is perfectly familiar to institutional investors while at the same time being perfectly adapted to the various applicable regulatory requirements.

The Clifford Chance team that advised Natixis Asset Management and AEW Europe for the main part was composed of Alexandre Lagarrigue (partner), Frédérick Lacroix (partner), Pierre Briguet-Lamarre and Claire Baissac.