Opportune and Eden Roc target middle market

Irish property investment adviser Opportune has formed a joint venture with Eden Roc Capital to invest more than €200 million in middle-market property transactions. It is targeting deals between €10 million and €50 million, below the level at which larger investors are prepared to invest.

Eden Roc's managing director is Robert B Lorenzo, a former investment banker with UBS and Salomon Brothers, who is based in New York.

“We have a very positive outlook for the Irish market and are of the opinion that the Republic will be the first EU nation to lead the group into the next financial bull market,” Mr Lorenzo said.

Opportune Capital was founded in 2008 to advise on acquiring, refinancing and restructuring loans, but it also has a wealth management and pension arm, as well as a specialist corporate finance practice. Its non-executive chairman is Robert Dix, a former KPMG partner, who was appointed as chairman of the Quinn Property Group after it was subject of an enforcement by IBRC, formerly Anglo Irish Bank.

‘International experience’

Ruairí O'Neill, Opportune's chief executive, said: "We are excited by the current opportunities in the Irish market and the [joint venture] with Eden Roc will enable us to bring our collective international experience and capital to fully exploit those opportunities and assist the many borrowers looking to acquire their debts from the various portfolio sales in recent times.

“We see the opportunity to do smaller deals. The bigger funds are not set up to do boutique transactions, which is what we do,” he added.

More deals

Mr O’Neill said Opportune was close to completing its first €10 million property transaction with Eden Roc, and it was actively looking for more deals by talking to both banks and borrowers who wanted to restructure their debts. Opportune’s general counsel is Ciarán McIntyre and his chief operating officer is Pádraig Owens.

Headquartered in Dublin with offices in London and Chicago, Opportune has completed $1.5 billion in transactions since its foundation. It has $700 million of assets under management.

Among the deals it has transacted are the joint sale with the Stenham Property Group of 1-19 Victoria Street, London for £180 million. It restructured and now manages for Irish investors 590 Fair Oaks, Los Angeles. which has planning for 150,000 sq ft medical office development, and it also negotiated the purchase of debt on a destination resort in Belize on 2,000 acres for Irish developers.