March 2012

Well, that didn’t take long . . . Flashback to last month, when we highlighted two eye-opening judicial decisions from Michigan that could potentially have a dramatic and costly impact for recourse guarantors of many CMBS loans.  The Cherryland and Chesterfield cases provoked widespread feelings of uncertainty and unease, as well as the belief that the courts had sacrificed the parties’ (and perhaps the entire industry’s) intent in exchange for a strict reading of the loan documents.  Despite the supposedly nonrecourse nature of the loans at issue, guarantors were faced with the possibility that they could be stuck with a whole lot of personal liability, simply because of a borrower’s inability to pay back its loan when due.  If upheld and looked to as persuasive authority in other jurisdictions, some believed the Michigan cases could run a wrecking ball through the foundation of American real estate finance.Continue Reading Michigan Legislature Proposes Bill in Response to Recourse Cases

Last week, I spoke in London at a conference, “Investing in Bank Assets” sponsored by the Association of Financial Markets in Europe (AFME). The Conference had a titillating, if a tad alarming, subtitle “The European Purge Begins”.

The question is, of course, is it true?  The purge, I mean.   Is there a European purge afoot, and are there massive opportunities to invest in European bank assets? I, for one, certainly hope so. 

Let’s test the case. Those who read this blog regularly will be aware we’ve been chirping about these opportunities for quite some time. Having participated on one side or another in most of the recent European banks’ initiatives to dispose of dollar denominated US assets, we’ve become quite fond of this nascent trend. And, not to bury the lead, we think there is a very large opportunity in the disintermediation from European banks, and a particularly large opportunity with respect to US commercial mortgage loan assets held by our European friends over the next 12 to 24 months. By the way, kudos to AFME, Gilbey Strub, Managing Director for Resolutions and Crisis Management at AFME and her colleagues for putting on a terrific show. It was co-sponsored by Dechert and by Alvarez & Marsal.Continue Reading MORE ON OPPORTUNITIES IN EU BANKLAND

Recently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals brought smiles to the faces of many lenders (especially Bank of America, the appellee and secured lender) when it refused to combine the assets of related debtors without a substantive consolidation order and held that a single asset real estate debtor will be treated as a single asset real estate debtor.Continue Reading If It Looks Like a Duck, err, a SARE Debtor…

Recently, several courts have published decisions interpreting the rights granted to mezzanine lenders under intercreditor agreements – I’ve recently co-authored this Dechert OnPoint detailing the cases. These decisions, in large part, follow the holding of the Stuytown decision (not great news for many subordinate lenders). Also, a recent decision from the United States Bankruptcy Court…