Elystan Aims $137M at Distressed Property

MUNICH-German banks are likely to start selling non-performing property assets this year that they have not been willing or able to divest earlier in the financial crisis. The Munich investment firm Elystan Capital Advisers is targeting over $137 million of equity at the opportunity.

The company is backed by GI Partners, a trans-Atlantic private equity group that has already successfully funded two other specialist work-out companies. “What makes us a little bit different is, firstly, that we’re German – we have no pretensions to being pan-European – and that it’s really about looking at the real estate industry in a vertical sense,” says Keith Fischer, one of the Elystan principals. “We’re capable of taking advantage of opportunities all the way from a acquiring a piece of a small mortgage bank or an entire mortgage bank, to running down performing or non-performing loans and mortgage back securities, or hard real estate assets.” Apart from the funding advantages that a German banking licence might bring, he also sees a need in Germany for a virgin’ mortgage bank which can do new business, refinance portfolios, and re-finance developers.