Euromoney Seminars’ inaugural European CMBS Forum, Berlin

The Forum was convened to mark the recovery of the European Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities Market over the last 12 months, following several fallow years after the credit crunch.

The renaissance in primary market issuance has been heavily concentrated in deals backed by portfolios of German multifamily housing estates. This most recently highlighted by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch arranged Taurus 2013 (GMF) Plc deal, which was heavily oversubscribed. However, there has also been a bevy of UK corporate based and shopping centre transactions, with a substantial Italian shopping centre transaction rumoured to be close to launch.

Thus far, whilst Malta has provided a jurisdiction for structured finance transactions involving, aircraft, ships and corporate assets, it has not yet seen an SPV form part of a CMBS structure. GANADO Capital Markets Partner, Richard Ambery, attended the Forum to explore Malta’s facility to provide SPV issuers in the recovery of this significant market, particularly when traditional sources of bank finance are set to become increasingly capital constrained.

Given its highly specialised law on securitisation and accompanying tax rules for securitisation transactions, Malta should be well set to participate. Richard chaired the second day of the conference, which was attended by many leading investment bankers, investors, issuers and legal and other advisors involved in the market.