Gatehouse Bank announces $100 million Shariah-compliant mezzanine finance fund

Gatehouse Bank plc (“Gatehouse”), the London-based investment bank specialising in Shariah-compliant products and services, is pleased to announce that it will co-advise and co-sponsor a newly created European mezzanine finance fund (the “Fund”), alongside a US based investment manager (“US Partner”). Gatehouse will be providing investment advisory, origination, arranging, structuring and loan servicing to the Fund with respect to its $100 million of committed funds that will be invested in European Shariah-compliant investments.

The Fund intends to principally invest in Shariah-compliant mezzanine real estate financings relating to European assets, including those in the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy and Spain. The Fund expects to invest in financings up to 85% (LTV), across three to five-year terms and is looking to achieve an expected net IRR of 6-10% for its investors.

Natale Giostra, Head of Real Estate Finance at Gatehouse, commented: “I am pleased to announce our first co-sponsored Shariah-compliant mezzanine finance fund. This mezzanine finance fund complements the senior balance sheet capabilities of Gatehouse and allows us to offer whole-loan financings to value added and opportunistic property strategies. Once again, the competitiveness of Gatehouse in the commercial real estate finance market has proven that our Shariah-compliant products are on par with those in the conventional lending space.”

Our US Partner commented: “In our search for a European partner to expand our US financing platform, we found in Gatehouse a unique combination of pan-European origination and structuring competences. With a highly fragmented and complex market such as Europe, it is rare to have a team with such profound cross-border expertise as the Real Estate Finance team at Gatehouse.”