Blackstone has completed and priced the United Kingdom's largest commercial mortgage-backed securities sale since the global financial crisis, a £1.5428 billion deal involving Haven holiday parks.
The transaction is backed by a senior loan secured on a portfolio of 40 properties, including 39 of the holiday parks in the United Kingdom operated by the Haven Group and its head office. Haven is the United Kingdom's largest holiday park operator based on number of pitches.
Most of the portfolio, 87%, includes beachfront locations with the diversified revenue from the properties coming from owners' site fees, holiday sales, caravan sales and on-site spending. Blackstone took control of Haven Holidays as part of its purchase of Bourne Leisure in January 2021. It has been reported by Sky News it's preparing to sanction a sale of the Haven Holidays part of the business next year.
The Caister Finance DAC move, priced at a weighted average margin of 350 basis points, was arranged by Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Citi with Royal Bank of Canada, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo acting as joint lead managers. On the closing date, the issuer will advance a £1.5428 billion senior facility A2 loan to the borrower vehicle Bard, Bidco. Blackstone is the senior loan sponsor.
Other lenders will also advance to the borrower a £974.4 million senior facility A1 loan and a £338.7 million senior capital expenditures facility loan. The total senior loan (A1, A2 and capital expenditures facility) is £2.86 billion. At closing, the issuer will also advance an £81.2 million facility R loan to the borrower, which will rank junior to the senior loan. The A2 and the R loan are the debt backing the securities.
The portfolio's market value as of year-end 2024 is £3.87 billion, equating to a loan to value ratio of 74%, based on the total senior loan, and 65% excluding the capital expenditures loan. Ratings firm S&P Global said the deal's five-year tail period would be sufficient, if necessary, for the servicer to manage a real estate workout process.
More issuers
The European CMBS market has been busy in 2025 with more issuers, sponsors and asset classes thanks to increasingly competitive pricing. United States private equity giant Blackstone has been by a long way the most active sponsor.
In March Citibank launched a CMBS deal involving three senior commercial real estate loans of a total of £840 million backed by a giant portfolio of Blackstone Real Estate Partners' industrial assets in the United Kingdom, in the fifth issuance in Europe of the year, as reported.
In February, Blackstone's first European CMBS of the year, the €525 million Sequoia Logistics 2025-1 DAC, the largest euro-denominated issuance CMBS since 2021, priced at a weighted average margin of 192 basis points, the keenest for a direct CMBS in four years, as reported.
By the half-year point the United Kingdom and European commercial mortgage-backed securities market had sailed past the 2023 and 2024 aggregate total, with United Kingdom logistics properties emerging as the standout performer.
First-half 2025 CMBS issuance of €4.7 billion across 10 transactions surpassed the total aggregated 2023 and 2024 CMBS issuance of €3.7 billion, according to analysis by bond rating firm Morningstar DBRS.
The performance came despite a slight pause in April following United States trade tariff announcements, and ongoing geopolitical uncertainty. Issuance has since rebounded quickly and there were five CMBS deals valued at €2.5 billion in the second quarter.
CMBS now captures 3.2% of the total year-to-date European securitisation volume, an increase from 0.9% last year, according to Morningstar, before the latest deal.
Financing of industrial properties has dominated issuance this year. Appetite for big-ticket industrial portfolio and platform deals underscores investor confidence in the future performance of the industrial sector in the United Kingdom, according to CoStar analysis of the sector.