Die Woche fängt nicht gerade berauschend an.
Die CAPMARK Gruppe, ein US-Gewerbeimmobilienfinanzierer, ist insolvent. Die Deutsche Bank soll mit bis zu 1.83 Milliarden $ im Boot sein.
Mal Abwarten wie der DAX das verkraftet. Ich hoffe mal, dass sich die Auswirkungen auf den Deutschen Markt in Grenzen halten werden.
By Dawn McCarty
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Capmark Financial Group Inc., the lender owned by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and KKR & Co., among other companies, filed for bankruptcy protection after posting a second-quarter loss of about $1.6 billion.
The company listed consolidated debt of $21 billion and consolidated assets of $20.1 billion as of June 30, according to Chapter 11 documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Forty-three affiliates also sought protection.
Capmark is one of the largest U.S. commercial real estate finance companies, with more than $10 billion in originations, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The company, formerly known as GMAC Commercial Holding Corp., services more than $360 billion of debt.
The Horsham, Pennsylvania-based company has struggled as the default rate on commercial mortgages held by U.S. banks more than doubled to the highest since 1994. Capmark said on Sept. 2 that it may reorganize under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code.
“All the businesses will be saved and continue with Capmark or will be sold as going concerns for full value,” attorney Martin Bienenstock, a partner at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLC in New York, which is handling the bankruptcy case, said in an e- mail.
$7.1 Billion
According to the filed court documents, Capmark and its units owe $7.1 billion to the 30 largest creditors, without collateral backing their claims.
The three biggest are Citibank N.A., as administrative agent under the $5.5 billion credit agreement, with a claim of $4.6 billion; Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, as trustee for the 5.875 percent senior notes and the floating senior notes due 2010, with claims of $1.2 billion and $637.5 million, respectively; and Wilmington Trust FSB, as successor trustee for the 6.3 percent senior notes due 2017, with a claim of $500 million, according to court papers.
On Sept. 2, Capmark said it struck a deal to sell its loan- servicing and mortgage business to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Leucadia National Corp. for as much as $490 million.
Commercial property values in the U.S. have plunged since 2007 as employers shed jobs and the recession reduced demand for offices, retail space and rental apartments. The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices fell 3 percent in August from July, bringing the decline to almost 41 percent since October 2007, Moody’s Investors Service said Oct. 19.
Unleased Space
U.S. office vacancies are at a five-year high, apartment vacancies at a 23-year record, and retail centers are showing the greatest share of empty store-fronts since 1992, according to real estate research firm Reis Inc. All that unleased space makes it harder for landlords to pay their mortgages to lenders like Capmark.
Property investors including New York developer Harry Macklowe, whose trophies included Manhattan’s General Motors Building, and Tishman Speyer Properties LP, which controls the Chrysler Building and Rockefellar Center, are being affected by plunging values and a dearth of credit.
Losses from commercial real-estate lending pose the biggest threat to U.S. banks as the loans deteriorate, leaders of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Office of Thrift Supervision told the Senate Banking Committee earlier this month.
Capmark had its senior unsecured ratings lowered to C from Caa1 by Moody’s Investors Service Inc. after the announcement of the potential sale, release of the operating results and restructuring efforts, according to a Sept. 9 credit opinion published by Moody’s.
“Unsecured lenders and bondholders, either in a default or restructuring scenario, would experience substantial losses,” Moody’s said. The C rating reflects the potential loss severity, according to the report.
KKR, the New York-based private-equity company run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, wrote the investment in Capmark down to zero as of March 31 of this year, according to data provided by KKR’s publicly traded investment vehicle.
The case is: In re Capmark Financial Group Inc., 09-13684, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
To contact the reporter on this story: Dawn McCarty in Wilmington, Delaware at dmccarty@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: October 25, 2009 21:49 EDT
"Markets can remain irrational for far longer than you can remain solvent" (John Maynard Keynes)