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Valad Europe is offering an alternative to Opera Uni-Invest CMBS bondholders which are due to vote on 17 April in Amsterdam on a solution for the distressed Dutch portfolio. Uni-Invest, the owner of the Dutch portfolio underpinning the EUR 750 mln facility, defaulted on the bond’s maturity deadline in mid-February.

Valad Europe is proposing a ‘consensual restructuring’ option under which it would be appointed as third-party asset manager to implement an accelerated property disposal plan of the portfolio of 220 offices and warehouses located throughout the Netherlands. Under the plan, the loan would be restructured and the bond’s maturity date (classes A to D) would be extended until February 2016. In return, class A-note bondholders would receive 3.77% more in annual income above the class A margin of 23 bps. Under this option, class B to D noteholders would receive a deferred cash interest payment.

The solution put forward by TPG Capital and Patron Capital revolves around the acquisition of the defaulted senior loan and its security in an enforced sale by Utrecht Holdings, a special vehicle owned by private funds managed by TPG and Patron. Class A noteholders would receive 40% (EUR 143.5 mln) of the outstanding note balance (EUR 358.8 mln).

TPG and Patron aim to finance the acquisition through a new loan to class A noteholders with a 60% LTV and a EUR 215 mln bank consortium loan. Under this alternative, known as the ‘credit bid’, class B through D noteholders would be left empty-handed.

Eurohypo is the special servicer and original issuer of the CMBS facility.

Sources close to the negotiations claim it is difficult to predict the voting behavior of the bondholders as it is unclear how many A noteholders are also holders of B, C or D notes. Failure to obtain approval on the two alternatives outlined above would result in the liquidation of Uni-Invest and a fire-sale of the properties. Many of the assets are inferior assets located on secondary locations.

The Uni-Invest case is being watched carefully across Europe and market watchers say it may set a precedent for other defaulted CMBS loans involving multiple noteholders.