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Law360 (May 26, 2020, 6:24 PM EDT) -- Slate Asset Management is providing as much as CA$500 million ($362.9 million) in capital to the Canadian real estate industry as the firm seeks to help parties that have been hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic, the firm announced Tuesday.
Toronto-based Slate Asset Management LP said it's offering the "transitional capital" as a way of providing liquidity to the real estate industry in Canada.
"Slate has identified an immediate opportunity to provide transitional capital to the Canadian real estate market through a blend of credit and structured equity," Blair Welch, founding partner of Slate Asset Management, said in a statement. "Our investment platform, institutional relationships and operational expertise uniquely position the firm to address this gap."
Slate did not identify specific companies that would be receiving assistance, but the firm did categorize the relief into three buckets: bridge and transitional finance; acquisition restructuring finance; and "flexible liquidity" for funds, sponsors and assets.
"As the financing environment tightens, Slate will assist borrowers on new acquisitions and refinancings, offering a mix of whole and junior loans ... [and] Slate will work with lenders facing impaired performing and non-performing loans and securities to re-package existing positions," the company added in a statement Tuesday. "Slate will use preferred equity to help stabilize balance sheets where existing debt or equity is constrained."
Slate, which manages more than CA$6.5 billion in assets, has also been active lately on the fundraising front.
Last month, the company said it had wrapped up a €250 million ($274.6 million) fund that will make investments in grocery properties in Europe. Slate had a target raise of €200 million for the fund and a hard cap of €250 million, and ended up hitting that hard cap, the company announced in April.
And earlier this year, one of the company's real estate investment trusts, Slate Retail REIT, landed an $83 million mortgage for more than half a dozen properties.
The firm on Tuesday also said Doug Podd has become managing director at the company's Toronto office. Podd previously worked at Brookfield Financial, leading that firm's debt advisory business.
"We are delighted to welcome Doug to the firm," Welch noted in a statement Tuesday. "His debt advisory and commercial lending background in the Canadian real estate market will be a significant value add to this strategy."
Counsel information for the CA$500 million relief package was not immediately available Tuesday.
--Editing by Daniel King.
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