Bank of China contributes to a €800 million EUR syndicated loan to Brookfield Property Partners for the acquisition of Potsdamer Platz

Project narrative

In October 2015, Bermuda-headquartered, but Canadian owned commercial real estate company Brookfield Property Partners L.P. entered into an agreement with Savills Investment Management to purchase Potsdamer Platz in Berlin for a €1.3 billion EUR consideration, the largest single property transaction in eight years. Brookfield and Korea Investment Corporation formed a joint venture for the acquisition. The acquisition was completed on January 4, 2016. To finance the acquisition, HSBC Bank entered into a €800 million EUR loan agreement with Brookfield Property Partners. Then, in May 2016, syndication closed on the deal, with a group of five banks — including the Bank of China (BOC) — joining the €800 million EUR loan with HSBC. In addition to BOC, the following lenders contributed to the loan syndicate: AXA Investment Managers, Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG (PBB), Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba), Berliner Sparkasse, and HSBC Bank. HSBC was the original arranger and underwriter of the loan; it syndicated the loan to the other banks, keeping a significant portion of the loan for itself. Potsdamer Platz is a mixed-use development, constructed on land at the old juncture of East and West Berlin along the site of the former Berlin Wall, where five of Berlin's streets meet. It hosts 17 buildings, 10 streets, and two squares with a gross area of over 2,900,000 square feet; 1,376,000 square feet of office space, 493,000 square feet of retail space, 271,000 square feet of residential space, 446,000 square feet of leisure space, and 138,000 square feet of a hotel. It hosts the Mandala Hotel, the Arkaden shops and restaurants, a cinema, the Stage Theatre, the 103-meter Potsdamer Platz 1 office tower, six other office buildings, and residential space.