Fitch Ratings has assigned a commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) large-loan special servicer rating of CLLSS3+ to Brookfield Real Estate Financial Partners LLC (BREF). The rating reflects the company's extensive commercial real estate finance and third-party asset management experience, Fitch says.
The senior management team has significant prior experience in the disposition of nonperforming commercial loans, including bankruptcies and foreclosures. Although the company's workout experience has been primarily limited to protecting mezzanine or B-note positions, BREF's senior managers average 19 years of related experience, which includes loan workout experience, the rating agency notes.
The rating will be used by BREF to name themselves as special servicer on loans where BREF or another investor holds either mezzanine or B-Note positions. The rating does not qualify an entity to special service a pool of conduit loans, but rather, only single large loans within a securitization.
While BREF has a strong commercial real estate background, including investing in CMBS, the company has very limited direct CMBS workout experience, Fitch adds, saying it will closely monitor the firm during its first year as a rated CMBS special servicer to ensure that CMBS-specific standards are met.
BREF is wholly owned by Brookfield Asset Management Inc., an asset manager with approximately $90 billion of assets under management. BREF was formed in 2002 to manage commercial real estate debt funds on behalf of large institutional and sovereign entity investors.
SOURCE: Fitch Ratings
