OakNorth lends £29m to joint venture between ALMCOR and Cerberus

By Bridging Loan Directory 5th December 2023

OakNorth the neobank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, has provided a bespoke debt finance facility to support the latest acquisition project of ALMCOR and an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. (“Cerberus”).

ALMCOR has over 25 years of experience operating in the UK and European real estate investment markets via its core mission to identify opportunistic real estate opportunities.

Founded in 1992, Cerberus is a pioneer in alternative investing with c.$60b in assets across complementary credit, private equity, and real estate platforms.

Following its launch in 2022, their joint venture (JV) has €500m of allocated capital to deploy in target markets across the UK and Europe.

The £29m loan from OakNorth will be used to support their acquisition of the 50-acre Leyland Business Park in Preston, Lancashire, and the 90-acre Melton Commercial Park in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, for their European Industrial Outdoor Storage (EIOS) platform.

The Leyland site, located less than a mile from the M6 and M65 motorways, consists of high-quality warehouse units, offices, and fully serviced sites ready for bespoke development.

Meanwhile, the Melton site is located less than two miles from Melton Mowbray town centre and benefits from two rail sidings, in addition to offering opportunities for redevelopment and energy generation.

As a result of this latest transaction, OakNorth has now lent £37M to the JV.

Peter McCluskey, Head of Active Value at ALMCOR, commented:

“These acquisitions provide an excellent snapshot into what we are doing in our EIOS platform.

From the highly strategic location of Leyland Business Park, to the critical rail facility in Melton, we’re quickly developing a diverse income-producing portfolio with scope to drive value in a number of areas.”

David Lane, Managing Director, Cerberus European Capital Advisors, continued:

“We’re delighted to welcome these two new major sites to our EIOS platform.

We continue to value OakNorth’s approach to delivering structured debt funding and look forward to working with them again in the future.”

Deepesh Thakrar, Senior Director and Josh Mailling, Senior Associate of Debt Finance at OakNorth, in a joint statement added:

“This is an excellent example of an asset that fits into Cerberus and ALMCOR’s investment strategy to acquire open storage assets with strong reversionary potential.

Both sites are in highly sought-after locations with excellent connectivity, resulting in impressive occupancy rates, we anticipate they’ll be a successful addition to the EIOS platform.”