RCA in the commercial property press:

Private equity firm Fortress raising its bets

Wall Street Journal reports: The New York private-equity firm Fortress Investment Group is raising its commercial property bets while that market remains down. On Thursday, Fortress said its funds have acquired CW Financial Services, one of the largest servicers of souring commercial mortgages packaged into bonds.

In recent days, Fortress also closed on a roughly $250 million investment in DaVinci Holdings, a high-profile and struggling Japanese property firm.

Though the two Fortress deals are relatively small (the firm is paying about $300 mil. for CW, according to people familiar with the acquisition) they highlight the opportunities distressed investors see in sagging commercial-property markets around the globe.

In both the U.S. and Japan, the values of hotels, office buildings and other commercial property are at or near multiyear lows, attracting bargain hunters. There are now $230 billion of troubled real-estate assets globally, according to Real Capital Analytics.

Articles related to this topic:

 Distress Trouble Continues As Large Office Landlord Seeks Loan Modification
 REIT Vornado Bidding for Loan Servicer CW Financial
 Distressed CMBS Loans Up
 Mixed Signals in CRE Market (Video)
 Fortress Buys CWCapital
 Aussie I-Bank Taking Offers over $3.5 bn for Commercial-REIT Spirit Finance

Posted by: Matthew Stone

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