Starwood Capital Group, an active global private investment firm focused on real estate and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG (“pbb” or “the bank”), a leading European specialist bank for commercial real estate finance, announced they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to finalise a strategic partnership in CRE lending. The partnership will enable Starwood Capital and pbb to participate in joint lending and origination, as well as explore other strategic initiatives to optimise pbb’s profitability in line with its Strategy 2027, whilst continuing to provide the most efficient financing solutions to the institutional clients of the respective institutions.
Through this partnership, Starwood Capital and pbb will leverage their combined real estate expertise and strong market presence across Europe, including access to different sources of capital and funding, to originate and execute loans for their respective clients and provide premier loan solutions.
In addition, the parties will explore a potential advisory relationship between pbb and Starwood Solutions to assist in providing supplementary market and asset-level insights with a primary focus on selected CRE loan positions in the United States. Starwood Solutions is a subsidiary of Starwood Property Trust, the largest commercial mortgage REIT in the United States, and provides advisory services to commercial banks and non-bank third-party institutions in the United States and globally.
This strategic partnership underpins pbb’s Strategy 2027, including the Bank’s ‘Originate & Cooperate’ strategy within its new Real Estate Investment Solutions business line. This strategy, launched on 10 October 2024, aims to leverage the bank’s financing platform by collaborating with third parties.
“We are delighted to work with such a valuable partner,” said Kay Wolf, CEO of pbb. “Starwood Capital is an important, well-regarded investment firm with which we have a long-standing business relationship. I am convinced that jointly and programmatically, we can add further value for our customers.”
“Starwood Capital is delighted to enter this strategic partnership with Deutsche Pfandbriefbank,” said Lorcain Egan, Co-Head of Europe at Starwood Capital. “pbb is a leading European commercial real estate lender and has built a strong, global reputation as a premier loan provider across high growth sectors in core CRE markets. This partnership reaffirms Starwood Capital’s long-term focus on expanding the depth of coverage of our commercial real estate lending franchise.”
Irakli Meskhi, Co-Head of Debt Origination, Europe at Starwood Capital, added: “We are incredibly excited to extend our long-standing relationship with the pbb team and support our collective goals to accelerate the growth of our lending platforms. This partnership builds on our complementary sector expertise and provides a platform for both institutions to increase our combined market coverage and strengthen our competitive position in our core CRE lending markets.”
