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Cain International has refinanced part of a £370M development loan on an £800M mixed-use scheme in east London and is working on refinancing the remainder ahead of a maturity this year.
The news comes as Cain merges with fellow real estate investment firm Blackbrook Capital, both of which are part-owned by Todd Boehly, the U.S. investor who is also a part owner of Chelsea FC.
Accounts filed this week for the special purpose vehicle that owns The Stage said the consortium that owns the scheme found a new £188M loan from Macquarie. It is secured against the residential element of the scheme, 412 apartments in a 40-storey Shoreditch tower.
The Stage is a joint venture between Cain, which owns 60%, China Vanke (21%), Galliard Homes (15.8%) and Investec (3.2%). The property was completed last year.
The new loan from Macquarie matures in January 2027. The accounts did not specify how many units have been sold, but they did say certain sales milestones need to be hit for the loan to stay within its covenants.
The remainder of the scheme comprises 220K SF of office space and 60K SF of retail space. WeWork had signed to lease the office space but the deal was scrapped as part of its global retrenchment. Last year, Amazon was reported to be in talks to take 180K SF of the office space.
The remainder of the scheme’s debt matures in June, and the accounts filed said the directors were confident that the empty commercial space would be leased, which would help the debt to be refinanced. The loan was arranged by Lloyds and originally scheduled to mature in autumn 2022.
Cain International is jointly owned by Boehly and Jonathan Goldstein, who previously led Heron International alongside UK real estate grandee Gerald Ronson. Companies House filings show that Boehly is registered as the person with significant control of Blackbrook Capital, and the two firms announced today that they are to merge, creating a firm with $17B, or £13.6B, in assets under management.
Arvi Luoma, co-founder and CEO of Blackbrook, will lead Cain’s European equity investment strategies, reporting to Goldstein, who will be CEO of the combined business, which will be called Cain International.
Blackbrook focuses on industrial, net lease and sale-and-leaseback deals. Cain makes equity investments and provides development debt. It has backed projects ranging from film studios in Sunderland to hotel projects in Beverly Hills, with several London schemes as well as The Stage.
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