Sector developments and company hires

UK industrial CMBS prepped
Bank of America is in the market with a £340.1m CMBS sponsored by Blackstone. Dubbed Taurus 2021-1 UK, the transaction is backed by a two-year floating rate loan (with three one-year extension options) secured by the borrower’s interests in 45 industrial assets across the UK totalling 4.1 million square-foot of floor area.

The largest asset is 7.1% by allocated loan amount, while the 10 largest assets account for approximately 44.6% of the pool, according to KBRA. The properties are leased to approximately 180 individual tenants, of whom the largest represents 12.1% of passing rent and the top 10 represent 37.6%.

The tenants consist of a variety of multinational, regional and local firms, concentrated in Greater London (accounting for 42.1% of the pool) but spread across nine different regions. The largest tenant is logistics company DSV Road, which makes up approximately 12.1% of the portfolio’s passing rent and 8.1% of total square-footage. KBRA notes that the rent roll is fairly granular, with the remaining top two tenants accounting for 4.2% and 3.3% of passing rent.

Five classes of notes (class A through E) will be issued, together with an issuer loan, which will constitute an eligible vertical interest under the EU, UK and US risk retention rules.

In other news…

EMEA
Channel Capital Advisors has named its senior advisor Daouii Abouchere head of ESG and sustainable finance. The firm says it is committed to making ESG a cornerstone of its investment process. As such, Abouchere will be responsible for implementing Channel’s ESG framework and for driving its sustainable finance strategy across the group, working with clients to develop and execute new ESG and sustainable financing solutions.

North America
Blackstone has hired Shary Moalemzadeh as a senior md and senior partner, based in New York, for the firm’s opportunistic investing platform Blackstone Tactical Opportunities. He will start in April and report to David Blitzer, global head of Blackstone Tactical Opportunities.

Moalemzadeh joins Blackstone after spending over 17 years at Carlyle, where he was most recently co-head of Illiquid credit strategies and co-head of Carlyle Strategic Partners, its special situation business. Prior to that, he was a principal and founding member of Jacksons and has also worked at Vestar Capital Partners and Merrill Lynch.

Kuvare Holdings has recruited Jason Powers as head of credit investments, responsible for investments in the private credit, CLO, ABS and corporate debt sectors. He was previously md and co-head of corporate debt finance at Wells Fargo and, before that, worked at Bank of America.