Värde Wins CMBS Deal of the Year Award for Industry’s First Hotel-Backed CRE CLO

Firm Recognized by GlobalCapital for Innovative Transaction

NEW YORK – Värde Partners is honored to win CMBS Deal of the Year as part of GlobalCapital’s 2022 U.S. Securitization Awards.

The annual awards recognize the most notable deals and market participants as voted on by peers, from shortlists compiled by GlobalCapital’s editorial team.

Värde’s VMC Finance 2021-HT1, a $527 million CRE CLO closed in December 2021, was an industry first being entirely backed by hotel assets. The build-to-suit transaction provided investors with access to what the firm views as a unique pocket of the hospitality market and a highly attractive collection of properties. As a result of robust underwriting on a deal-by-deal basis, Värde was able to provide CLO-style investor protections and low-leverage asset quality, similar to deals in the single-asset, single-borrower (SASB) space.

“It is an honor to be recognized by our peers for this first-of-its-kind transaction that we structured with investors in mind. We would like to thank the teams at Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, Dechert and Cadwalader for their important partnership,” said Melissa Band, Director on Värde’s Capital Markets team.

Jim Dunbar, Partner and Head of Real Estate Lending, added: “The success of this deal, we believe, speaks to the growth and maturity of the CRE CLO market. We continue to see both an increased demand for flexible capital that we provide to established owners of real estate assets as well as a strong appetite for our CRE CLO products, and we are pleased to help meet those needs.”

The securitization consisted of 10 floating-rate mortgages originated by Värde’s CRE lending platform and secured by 11 hospitality properties. Many of the loans were transitional in nature, helping properties bridge to a post-pandemic recovery.

Värde funded over $1 billion of real estate loans in the hospitality sector in 2021.

Värde’s CRE Lending Program

Värde has 28 years of experience investing in real estate and credit markets and has originated $6 billion in CRE loans since 2017. The firm has a dedicated team of experienced origination, asset management and capital markets professionals.

Through its CRE lending program, Värde is a non-recourse, balance sheet lender financing all major asset classes, plus mixed-use and self-storage. Värde focuses on providing flexible capital and certainty of execution to meet the needs of experienced real estate investors.

The firm has a clean securitization track record, having experienced zero losses to date, no overcollateralization test breaches, and six of its ten securitizations successfully paid off.

About Värde Partners

Värde Partners is a leading global alternative investment firm specializing in credit and credit-related assets. Founded in 1993, the firm has invested through multiple credit cycles, building on its roots in special situations and distressed to invest more than $90 billion across the credit quality and liquidity spectrum in both public and private markets. Värde currently manages over $13 billion in assets with teams in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific focused on Corporate & Traded Credit, Real Estate, and Financial Services. For more information, please visit www.varde.com.

Awards referenced do not reflect the experiences of any Värde client and readers should not view such information as representative of any particular client’s experience or assume that they will have a similar investment experience as any previous or existing client. Awards are not indicative of the past or future performance of any Värde product or service and should not be relied upon as any indication of future performance of Värde or any of its funds. This information is provided solely for background purposes and should not be used as a basis for an investment decision regarding an investment in any Värde product or service. The methodology for the GlobalCapital U.S. Securitization awards is as follows: The awards are based on thousands of votes cast in GlobalCapital’s annual poll comprised of industry participants. GlobalCapital called for industry participants to nominate deals for several categories, and GlobalCapital’s editorial team compiled a shortlist for each category. Market participants then voted in each category in March/April 2022. The selection of Värde to receive the award was based in part on subjective criteria and a limited universe of candidates, and therefore there can be no assurance that a different global editorial team or voters might not have selected other firms or transactions as the winners.