Certus partnered an institution (US$40Bn+ AUM) in its ~₹3,500 crore acquisition bid
In a nutshell
Certus acted as the operating partner for acquisition, diligence and turnaround plan for a real estate lending platform
A local non-bank RE financier (“Lender”), with an AUM of ~₹6,600 crores (across 80+ projects), defaulted on its debt obligations in Sep 2019. The secured creditors (25+ creditors with an aggregate exposure of ~₹4,000 crores) took control of the Lender through a steering committee and invited bids for the platform / its assets. They received bids from five investors of which two investors (including the Certus partnered Investor) went to the final round and submitted binding bids. The competing bid won by a marginal difference.
Certus team curated a Focus Portfolio for detailed grounds-up underwriting and full-scope accelerated diligence. Focus Portfolio represented 80%+ of the Lender’s loan book (by value).
Leveraging our extensive RE lending / equity underwriting experience and relationships across the RE ecosystem, Certus team spearheaded the grounds up assessment of each loan position in the Focus Portfolio.
In collaboration with the Investor, we defined the scope of an accelerated diligence. Diligence streams included technical (entitlements and approvals), market, legal (land title and security documentation) and financial diligence of the underlying projects.
In the event of a successful acquisition of the platform by the Investor, Certus would take over management of the platform to implement the turnaround strategy.