Herbert Smith Freehills has advised Moorfield Real Estate Fund (MREF) and Moorfield Real Estate Fund II (MREFII) on its sale of a diversified real estate investment portfolio to Lone Star Real Estate Fund III (LSREFIII) for c.£1 billion.
According to Marc Gilbard, Chief Executive Officer of Moorfield Group (Moorfield), this is the largest transaction that Moorfield has undertaken in its corporate history and is a very effective way for MREF and MREFII to realise the majority of their investments.
The portfolio comprises both traditional real estate investments (retail and offices) as well as alternative real estate investments (hotels, residential and student accommodation). Moorfield will continue to have a role as asset manager, alongside Hudson Advisors.
Moorfield is a UK real estate and related private equity fund manager, with investments made through the Moorfield Real Estate Funds (MREFs). MREF was raised in 2005 and MREFII was raised in 2007, with both private equity real estate funds managed by Moorfield.
Lone Star Funds (“Lone Star”) is a leading private equity firm that invests globally in real estate, equity, credit and other financial assets. Since the establishment of its first fund in 1995, Lone Star has organised 13 private equity funds with aggregate capital commitments totaling over $52 billion.
The Herbert Smith Freehills team was led by real estate partner Ian Cox and corporate partner Alex Kay.
The transaction has been undertaken ‘off-market’ with Doherty Baines acting on behalf of Lone Star. Allen & Overy and PWC acted for Lone Star and PWC acted for both Moorfield and Lone Star. More detail of the assets involved will be released on completion in early 2015.
Source: www.herbertsmithfreehills.com
