The real estate sector is currently facing enormous challenges. As a result, real estate funds and their managers are also coming under increasing pressure. This is illustrated by headlines such as “Financial supervisory authority sends asset management company into insolvency” or “Another billion euro real estate fund comes under pressure”. In times of economic uncertainty, all stakeholders concerned have one common goal, which is to secure their assets in the long term. In our analyses, we always keep the stakeholders’ conflicting interests in mind.
Rising interest rates, increasing regulation, supply bottlenecks and a shortage of skilled labour are just some of the factors that have plunged the real estate market into a fundamental crisis. The consequences are stagnation in the investment market, a slump in the number of new builds, and a devaluation of properties. There is great uncertainty among stakeholders. A domino effect might occur, resulting in significant asset losses.
As a full-service law firm, Luther is your ideal partner in tackling these challenges. Our experts help stakeholders concerned secure their assets, whether as a preventive measure or during a crisis. We know the problems and challenges involved in reconciling conflicting interests in economically turbulent times. You can benefit from the lessons learned by our experienced specialists during the 2008 financial crisis.
Professional excellence and strong market penetration are our key competencies; our tool is our health check. We work in a structured manner, both when providing preventive advice and when offering support during a crisis:
In times of crisis, the various market players pay particular attention to the resilience of the asset manager and of the asset manager’s products, both of which are indispensable factors in building trust and a good reputation and ensuring competitiveness.
Our experts can assist you in securing the assets and financial products managed by you and help you avoid insolvency risks.
We can analyse the fund structures and assess your legal position with regard to impending stress scenarios, including liquidation, suspension and insolvency scenarios and the related liability risks. We can develop optimisation strategies to stabilise your liquidity situation, reposition your products and defend against liability.
Our team can analyse your service provider structures and identify the rights that need to be strengthened for the performance of your management activities in order for you to be able to manage your fund in times of crisis and get it through the crisis.
Given the importance of having a good communication strategy in place in times of crisis, we can also develop a strategy regarding how to communicate with investors and supervisory authorities, and we can provide training for your staff and service providers with regard to potential sources of risk in fund management.
Institutional investors focus above all on protecting their investments.
Our experts can analyse the legal situation regarding your investment and help you assess and limit the risk of losses.
We can provide you with a detailed explanation of the sometimes highly complex legal structure of the fund and advise you on your specific rights as an investor (for example, rights to receive information, as well as participation rights and rights to unilaterally alter or terminate the legal relationship) and on how to use and exercise those rights effectively to minimise risks. As regards your legal position, we can analyse optimisation options with a view to stabilising your fund investment (for example, with regard to leverage and service provider structures) and assist you when communicating with the manager, supervisory authorities and other third parties (such as your umbrella fund investors).
We can assess whether any managers, current or former board members, co-shareholders or third parties are liable for damages or otherwise and ensure the efficient and effective enforcement of the relevant claims, both before state courts and before arbitral tribunals. We can, of course, also advise you when it comes to execution, as well as during restructuring negotiations with the creditors of the investment vehicles.
A distressed closed or open-ended real estate fund also affects the service provider who, based on a contractual agreement to that effect, manages the fund properties and ensures economically that their value is preserved.
We can analyse your contractual situation regarding your relationship with the fund manager and, against the background of a potential loss in value of the property or of insolvency of the fund or of the asset management company, identify the options available to you to minimise your liability and safeguard your financial interests. We can analyse your corporate links with the fund product and advise you on liability and insolvency law issues.
We can also support you in negotiations with the asset manager and work with you to develop a strategy for how best to communicate with investors.
In the event of a distressed real estate fund, the distribution of the fund units also comes into focus. This concerns above all funds sold to so-called retail investors. Law firms specialising in consumer protection law are already intensifying their client acquisition efforts in order to enforce as large a number as possible of alleged claims for damages.
Our experts are familiar with all aspects of capital investment law. We can analyse the liability risks involved for you in your capacity as investment consultant or investment broker when selling fund units and help you minimise future liability risks, for example, by training your sales staff.
Our firm’s experienced litigators can further assist you in defending claims for damages or other remedies, in both individual and collective proceedings. These services are, of course, provided using modern LegalTech applications and AI in collaboration with the Luther Solutions team.
The challenges in the real estate market are also being felt by financing banks. Our experts analyse the existing financing structures and advise the credit institutions on necessary adjustments, follow-up financing and financial restructurings.
If necessary, we assert rights under existing financing contracts and ensure the effective and efficient enforcement of claims. We can, of course, also advise on the realisation of security, or on the levy of execution. In this respect, we have special expertise when it comes to creditor-controlled M&A processes involving the solvent liquidation of investment vehicles. At Luther, we ensure that your assets are secure. Our advice always hits the mark.
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