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Roula Khalaf, Editor dari FT, memilih cerita favoritnya dalam buletin mingguan ini.
Sebuah dana properti senilai $10 miliar yang dikelola oleh Starwood Capital milik Barry Sternlicht secara ketat membatasi kemampuan investor untuk keluar dari investasinya karena mempertahankan likuiditas dan menghindari penjualan paksa aset di pasar yang diyakini buruk.
Dana tersebut, yang dikenal sebagai Sreit, pada hari Kamis memberitahu investor bahwa mereka membatasi pengambilan kembali dana hingga 0,33 persen dari total aset per bulan, penurunan lebih dari 80 persen dari hak likuiditas mereka. Sejak dimulainya pada tahun 2018, dana tersebut memperbolehkan investor untuk mengambil kembali hingga 2 persen dari total aset bersihnya setiap bulan, atau 5 persen per kuartal. Portofolio Sreit meliputi gedung apartemen di Arizona, pusat logistik di Norwegia, dan pinjaman besar yang diberikan kepada Blackstone untuk akuisisi kelompok hotel dan kasino Australia, Crown Resorts.
Menghadapi permintaan pengambilan kembali yang tinggi dan likuiditas yang menipis, Sreit mengatakan bahwa mereka akan semakin “membatasi” investor karena mereka percaya Federal Reserve akan segera menurunkan suku bunga, memberikan “langit yang lebih cerah” di mana mereka akan lebih suka menjual properti.
Pembatasan ini datang di tengah peningkatan pengawasan terhadap posisi keuangan Sreit dalam menghadapi permintaan pengambilan kembali yang besar dari para investor. Earlier this month, the Financial Times detailed how Sreit had drawn down more than $1.3bn of its $1.55bn credit facility beginning in 2023 as it used much of its available liquidity to pay redemptions, leaving it short on cash.
That raised the risk it would run out of cash without fire-selling property or borrowing more money. Sreit last reported $752mn in liquidity as of April 30, versus a quarterly pace of redemptions of about $500mn. But the fund was set to exhaust nearly $200mn of that cash on May 1 to continue paying redemptions, according to securities filings published on May 13.
The new limits will keep quarterly redemptions to about $100mn, preserving scarce cash. Since the beginning of 2023, investors have redeemed nearly $3bn from Sreit. In the first quarter, investors asked for $1.3bn in cash back, but received only about 38 per cent on a pro-rata basis.
In a letter to shareholders on Thursday, Sreit said it had decided to almost fully restrict investors’ liquidity rights because it believed property markets will soon recover. The fund did not respond to a request for additional comment.
Sreit said in the letter: “[As] a fiduciary to our stockholders, we cannot recommend being an aggressive seller of real estate assets today given what we believe to be a near-bottom market with limited transaction volumes, and our belief that the real estate markets will improve.”
Sreit said in the first quarter its properties generated a 7 per cent increase in rents, which it called the “best in our competitive set”. But it also disclosed it sold $2.8bn in property assets to meet redemptions at values slightly below where it carried the properties on its books.
Starwood said: “In total, we have sold approximately $2.8bn of real estate including approximately $1.8bn of multifamily, industrial, and real estate loans at a $335mn profit . . . These sales occurred within 2 per cent of the [fund’s] gross asset values.”
Starwood’s high leverage of 57 per cent of its gross assets means that to raise $500mn to pay off redeeming investors, it would have to sell more than $1bn in property assets.
Investors and regulators have been closely scrutinising redemption data from funds invested in private markets, given the underlying assets can be hard to value. That has raised concerns over whether a fund manager could generate the full sum when selling assets.