MIKE BRYANT APPOINTED MANAGING DIRECTOR OF NEWLY CREATED INTERNATIONAL DEBT PLATFORM
8 September 2008 – GE Real Estate announces the promotion of Mike Bryant, previously Managing Director of public markets origination at GE Real Estate UK, to the newly created position of Managing Director, International Debt, GE Real Estate International.
Mike Bryant joined GE Real Estate in 2003 and to date has been responsible for originating equity opportunities in the UK private and public property markets. Over the past 12 months, his focus has increasingly turned to the acquisition of performing debt portfolios, where, backed by its AAA-rated balance sheet, GE has exercised its unique ability to identify, underwrite and execute acquisitions of significant loan portfolios in the UK and on a pan-European basis. These transactions total €4.3 billion and include £2 billion of loans acquired from Bradford & Bingley in November 2007, €1.3 billion from Capmark and a €642 million portfolio from Credit Suisse. Prior to joining GE Real Estate, Bryant spent over 10 years at a number of financial institutions, including HVB Real Estate Capital.
In his new role, Bryant will build on the success of these transactions, and work with all of GE Real Estate’s European and Asian platforms to lead the company’s strategy to increase its debt exposure. Working with the extensive network of local platforms within Europe and Asia he will be responsible for the origination and structuring of debt acquisitions and assessing the potential viability of in-house loan origination in the future. Bryant will report directly to Mark Hutchinson, President and CEO of GE Real Estate International
Commenting, Mark Hutchinson, President and CEO of GE Real Estate International, said:
“The creation of this new post and Mike’s promotion reflects both his immense contribution to GE Real Estate and our desire to increase our exposure to debt portfolios. We are confident that Mike, having been instrumental in developing the model over the past 12 months and leading investments in over €4 billion of European debt portfolios, will be well placed to transfer this knowledge to the Asian markets and other debt opportunities. We believe that we can achieve attractive levels of risk-adjusted returns by leveraging our balance sheet to buy performing debt portfolios.
“It is very gratifying to be able to draw on such a multitude of knowledge, experience and talent from within our teams. Not only does this reflect our versatility in adapting to changing market conditions, but it bodes well for the ongoing evolution of our international operations.”
Mike Bryant said:
“Our increasing exposure to large-scale debt portfolios reflects the value and attractiveness we continue to see in this asset class as the turbulence in the financial markets continues, and we believe that it will be a crucial part of the growth of our business going forward. Our proven ability to identify and execute large, multi-jurisdictional debt transactions provides us with a strong platform that can be effectively deployed across all the European and Asian platforms; I look forward to working with our teams to continue this success.”