We raise and place capital independently, with the discipline of a bank.
Blackbear runs the originate-and-distribute discipline of a bank commercial real estate debt platform, without a balance sheet to protect. We are paid to find the right capital, not to place our own.
Every mandate is led by a partner from first analysis through to drawdown. Our advice is grounded in cycles rather than theory: the team has worked through expansion, financial crisis, recovery and disruption, on both sides of the table.
We own assets, sit on boards and write cheques with our own money. That changes the advice: we underwrite a client's asset the way we underwrite our own, we understand how lender credit committees assess risk because we have sat on both sides of it, and we will tell a client when the answer is a different structure rather than a different lender.
Six service lines, one partner accountable on every mandate.
Three stages, one partner accountable from first analysis to closing.
Every engagement begins with a single question: what outcome is the client trying to achieve? The answer is rarely simply 'debt' or 'equity'. Once the objective is clear, we build the process around it and stay on the mandate until the money is drawn.
Analysis & Presentation
- Detailed asset and business underwriting
- Cash-flow modelling and sensitivities
- Transaction structuring and indicative terms
- Financing or investment memorandum
- Positioning of the client and platform
- Selection of the right financiers and investors
Capital Sourcing
- Senior-level approach to lenders and investors
- Meetings with capital providers
- A genuinely competitive process
- Management of lender and investor questions
- Day-to-day process management
- Optimisation of pricing, structure and terms
Diligence & Closing
- Term-sheet negotiation
- Support through credit and investment committee
- Management of the due-diligence process
- Negotiation of loan and JV documentation
- Satisfaction of conditions precedent
- Management of the closing process
Our team consists of former principals with direct lending, investment and ownership experience. A partner is involved from first analysis to closing; mandates are not handed down after the pitch.
curated banks, insurers, credit managers, private-equity investors and funds
What we take on, where, and which part of the capital structure.
We advise across the whole capital structure and the whole life cycle of an asset or platform, from acquisition and development through stabilisation, refinancing and exit. The criteria below are indicative rather than absolute: the deciding question is whether structure, not simply capital, is what the situation needs.
- Acquisition financing
- Refinancing
- Development and construction funding
- Equity release and cash-out
- Restructuring and recapitalisation
- Bridge and transitional capital
- Rescue and special-situations capital
- Real estate, hospitality and operating assets
- Real-estate-adjacent infrastructure and energy
- Europe, the US and selected emerging markets
- Single assets, portfolios and platforms
- Core, value-add and opportunistic
- Income-producing and development
- Asset management, lease-up and repositioning
- Senior loans
- Whole loans
- Mezzanine and subordinated debt
- Preferred equity
- Joint-venture and co-investment equity
- Corporate and holdco facilities
- Structured and hybrid solutions
Closed and live mandates to date cover the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay, Türkiye, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.
Selected closed mandates.
| Size | Mandate | Blackbear role |
|---|---|---|
| €2.3bn | Berlin mixed-use development | Advised, restructured and raised rescue capital |
| €1bn | Portuguese residential and hotel | Advised on and restructured a corporate facility |
| £300m+ | UK hotel company | Raised debt and equity for hotel platform |
| €300m+ | Berlin multifamily portfolio | Arranged a senior facility |
| €200m+ | Marbella resort development | Raised funding for acquisition, planning, urbanisation and development |
| €175m | Spanish hotel portfolio | Consolidated and refinanced existing loans from different banks |
| £100m | London hotel | Bridge funding |
| Bridge | Punta del Este hotel and casino | Bridge secured on a 2.5-hectare site |
| Bridge | Turkish solar panel manufacturer | Raised strategic growth capital |
What these mandates have in common is that each required a tailored structure, not simply a lender: rescue capital for a stressed development facility, a corporate restructuring spanning two asset classes, a staged multi-year permitting programme and a bridge sized against a CMBS reserve obligation.
Let's talk.
Tell us what you are trying to achieve and we will tell you honestly whether we can help, and how.