Puma Property Finance, part of the Puma Capital Group, has formed a strategic partnership with New York-headquartered Madison International Realty.
As part of the agreement, Madison has acquired a 24.5% stake in Puma and made a significant cornerstone commitment to underpin the launch of Puma’s new institutional credit fund series.
Mo Saraiya, managing director and head of Madison’s growth platform investment strategy, will join the Puma board.
David Kaye, founder and CEO of Puma Capital Group, said: “We are delighted to welcome Madison International Realty as a strategic partner to our Property Finance business. This important partnership from a highly respected institutional investor reflects and endorses our strong track record and the excellent team we have built at Puma.
“We have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the team at Madison and believe they share the values and ambition of our group. We are confident that they will add significant value and expertise and we are very much looking forward to working with them.”
Paul Frost, managing director of Puma Property Finance, added: “This partnership marks a significant milestone for our business, allowing us to access substantial additional capital at attractive pricing and providing us with the firepower to launch our first discretionary institutional debt fund.
“The Madison partnership will enable us to expand the reach of our core development finance offering, including upping our maximum loan size to £100m, whilst also increasing our provision of stabilisation lending for operational assets. Crucially it means we can do even more to support UK developers at a time when demand for our lending solutions is high.”
Saraiya said: “Our investment in Puma is the latest in our strategy of providing liquidity solutions and growth capital to strong management teams through a bespoke combination of property and entity level investment. This transaction is a testament to the market position that David and his team have established to date.
“We believe the unmet demand for development financing in the UK puts specialist, flexible lenders like Puma in a strong position to support the best borrowers delivering high quality, sustainable projects in sectors with strong fundamentals.”
Puma was advised by Ashcombe Advisers, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and Deloitte. Madison was advised by Jones Day, E&Y, Howden and Kroll.
