Book review
Commercial Mortgage Loans and CMBS:
Developments in the European Market
Editor: Andrew V Petersen, structured finance partner, K&L Gates LLP
Publisher: Sweet & Maxwell
Price: £175
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9780414025585
This is a “must read” for anyone seeking an understanding of the shape and direction of today’s European commercial real estate
(CRE) finance market. In particular, it offers an in-depth appraisal of the issues facing European commercial mortgage-backed
security (CMBS) and its role in the wider real estate finance markets.
Written by experts in the field of CRE finance, the book, now in its second edition, is co-authored and edited by Andrew V Petersen,
a structured finance partner at K&L Gates, in association with the CRE Finance Council Europe.
With the first edition having been published in 2006, close to the CRE market’s zenith, this new edition is a timely and welcome
publication as it takes stock of the turmoil endured by the CRE finance market over the last five years and examines the challenges
and opportunities that now lie ahead of it.
Petersen has drawn together experts from across the CRE business and legal community to provide the reader with an authoritative and insightful manual. The book explains how the market has responded to the financial crises by repositioning and reinventing itself in a bid to emerge leaner, stronger and able to attract a more cautious and diversified investor base.
Many of the book’s 20 chapters look back as well as forward. The management of legacy positions, the lessons learned from the
downturn and the future prospects for the CMBS and CRE markets are threads that run throughout. The book examines regulatory developments in the UK and Europe, including the industry’s new CMBS 2.0 market principals and assesses transaction structures both pre and post-crises. Other topics include the use of derivatives in CRE financings, the role of the rating agencies and the
emergence of Islamic-compliant CRE financing. It takes a close look at the issues facing the market, such as how to bridge the funding gap, the changing nature of intercreditor terms, new approaches to risk and reward, and opportunities for non-bank lenders.
Petersen plots the course of the CRE and CMBS markets in a detailed yet easily digestible way, offering an accessible and cohesive
reader experience. The narrative is complemented by diagrams and charts, and the text is bookended by a comprehensive abbreviations table and an equally impressive glossary section, explaining terms in clear and straightforward language.
This book covers a lot of ground but is as impressive in its depth as it is in its breadth. It is all the better for tapping the market’s
leading practitioners whose contributions provide first-hand, practical and informative analysis. It is an essential manual for all
participants in the UK and European CMBS markets, the wider CRE finance industry and their respective legal advisers.
Fred van Oordt, Editor, PLCFinance.
This article first appeared in the January/February 2013 issue of PLC Magazine.
© Practical Law Publishing Limited 2013. Subscriptions +44 (0)20 7202 1200
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