Lone Star, the Dallas based private equity fund, has acquired the loan portfolio of developer Sean Reilly for €220 million or a discount of 41 per cent to par.
CoStar News, a commercial real estate information service, said that the National Asset Management Agency selected Lone Star after it beat off under-bidders Kennedy Wilson, Irish financiers D2 Private, and Starwood Capital in a joint bid with York Capital Management.
The sale process was code-named Project Holly and related to loans with a face-value of €373 million secured on 28 commercial property assets primarily in D1,D2 and D4 and a number of development sites.
Its best assets are the 210,000 sq ft Iveagh Court Complex in Dublin 2, the Watermarque Building in Dublin 4 and CityNorth, an office and hotel development on 100 acres in county Meath.
The portfolio, owned via Mr Reilly's company McGarrell Reilly, was recently boosted when Airbnb, the online accommodation company, took a 21,000 sq ft lease in the Watermarque building.
Anchorage Capital initiated bidding for Mr Reilly's portfolio last year after it approached Nama about acquiring his loans in a venture that would have retained the developer as an advisor.
Mr Reilly owns a number of sites in the Greater Dublin area which are suitable for residential housing. Mr Reilly became briefly famous in 2009 when it emerged he was one of the group known as the Maple 10 who bought shares in Anglo Irish Bank.
Meanwhile bids for Nama's Central Park office development in Sandyford are due in on Wednesday January 29. Blackstone and Lone Star are believed to have submitted the two highest bids in the first round with three other groups also interested.
