12 | INDUSTRY Finance news
INDUSTRY By Geoff Hadwick
THERE are increasing signs that the banks are getting ready to loan again on big international hotel and resort developments in the West. “Getting fi nance has been diffi cult
since late 2007, but there are signs that lender appetite is slowly returning, albeit at much lower levels than before,” Rod Taylor, Founder and Chairman of Taylor Global Advisors has told OPP. Taylor, who will be one of the co-hosts
at the Bankers Forum at the forthcoming International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) in Berlin March 7 to 9 2011, will be helping to lead a session designed to “discuss new business written by Europe’s premier lenders in 2010 using case studies to discuss recent transactions that they were able to support throughout the year.” “Money remains the lifeblood of
the industry and without it, new hotels cannot be constructed or refurbished and investors will be unable to close acquisitions,” says Taylor. His forum session will use “presentations by experienced lenders from a number of the major European
Cash injection | Developers struggling to fi nd fi nance could have an easier time
banks in which they hope to share high- level background about a number of transactions that have hit their lending sweet spot. If borrowers know what has encouraged a lender to commit, then this should be valuable knowledge. It could possibly be the difference between getting a deal off the ground in the future or not.”
According to Jonathan Worsley, chairman of Bench Events and co-organiser of IHIF, the “bankers forum will allow leading European lenders will speak directly to IHIF attendees about the state of the debt market by presenting
a deal that has been successfully transacted in 2010. The session will give a clear picture of the current appetitie for lending to the industry and the challenges that lie ahead in 2011,” said Hosted by Rod Taylor, Founder & Chairman of Taylor Global Advisors Ltd and Patrick Sanville, Director, Hotels of BNP Paribas Real Estate, the panel includes: Barbara Levi, Senior Banker-Hotel Sector, Credit Agricole CIB; Bettina Graef, Special Property Finance-Head of Hotel Properties, Aareal Bank AG; Bob Silk, Relationship Director-Hotels Team,
www.opp.org.uk | FEBRUARY 2011 Banks are ready to offer loans again
Barclays Corporate; Jan Willem Van Roggen, Managing Director Real Estate & Hotels , NIBC Bank N.V.; Stephen Welch, Relationship Director-Hotels & Leisure, Santander Corporate Banking, Thibault Dutreix, Principal Banker, Property & Tourism, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Carole Tran Van Lieu, Director- Real Estate Structured Finance, Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking. “While some banks were relatively
unscathed during the crisis, the fact remains that ALL banks will be affected by Basel III and, hence, the lending parameters going forward may never return to those of the heydays of hotel lending,” stated Barbara Levi, Senior Banker-Hotel Sector, Credit Agricole CIB and panellist of the Bankers Forum. “Nevertheless, banks still need to do deals and for well-structured transactions for good clients, there should be no problem accessing the loan market.” For more information and details on registering for the IHIF conference to be held 7-9 March in Berlin, visit the IHIF website.
Spains banks reveal the damage Claim tax
SPAIN’S banks are starting to reveal the scale of their property loans. Banco Mare Nostrum (BMN) led the way this month when it admitted that 23% of its loan book is “related to real estate.” BMN was the first of the unlisted
savings banks to report their exposures to property loans under new Bank of Spain demands. The Bank of Spain has ordered
the nation’s banks, including the unlisted ‘cajas’ that account for around half the financial system, to publish details of their exposure to the property sector as worries about the cajas’ exposure to the collapsed property market continue to fuel fear about the overall stability of the country’s banking system. BMN’s total loan book is €52.6
billion (US $69 billion), with €11.6 billion related to the property sector,
the bank said. Of that €2.8 billion are bad loans and €1.8 billion are “potentially bad.” The Spanish government has also
forced the cajas to cut their number to 17 from 45 in a wave of mergers in recent months. All of them are going to have to follow suit and reveal the exact scale of their property loans over the next few weeks. BMN, formed from the merger of regional banks Caja Granada, Caixa Penedes, Caja Murcia and Sa Nostra, said that its worst case scenario would mean a €4.2 billion loss. Elsewhere, Banco Espanol de
Credito SA, a retail-banking unit of Banco Santander SA, also revealed this week that it has €10.4 billion (US $13.7 billion) of risk linked to Spain’s property sector. The news came as the bank announced that its full-year profits
have fallen 18% to €460.1 million, forcing the Madrid-based lender to set aside €1 billion in loan-loss provisions in 2010. “Giving more information on real
estate risk is a fundamental exercise for the Spanish banks,” says Juan Pablo Lopez, an analyst at Banco Espirito Santo SA in Madrid. “The overall impression is negative because of the decline in margins while the asset quality decline continues.” Banks had been criticised for failing to declare the true value of bad loans.
UK owners of holiday rental properties in the EU could be missing out on substantial tax benefi ts, and the window of opportunity is closing soon. Capital claims allowances for
furnished holiday lettings allow owners of rented holiday homes to claim back approximately a quarter of the value of their properties back as tax, if certain criteria are met. However, a survey of 100 rental
property owners conducted by Capital Allowance & Tax Recovery Ltd (CAATRL) found that none of them had heard of the ruling, which was introduced in April 2009. Robin Raymond, the director CAATRL
Empty pockets | The truth comes out
said: “Most property owners are just not aware of this opportunity. They have nothing to lose as they could be entitled to thousands of pounds in tax rebates. It is not a privilege, it is their right.” Legislation is due to change in April.
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