This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
GLOBAL investment bank UBS has tipped in an additional $100 million to its debt warehouse facility with Centuria Bass Credit, which has just appointed former Wallabies vice-captain David Giffin as deputy CEO and co-head of lending.
UBS’s commitment boosts the facility to around $285 million, including its initial $100 million contribution in July, with the balance from private wholesale investors.
Majority-owned by ASX-listed Centuria Capital, Centuria Bass’s assets under management lifted to $2.3 billion over the past year, a 45% increase, having originated and financed over 44 loans worth more than $960 million during 2024.
“It is a pleasure to expand our relationship with UBS as it doubles its capital commitments with our business within the past six months,” said Centuria Bass joint CEO Giles Borten.
“UBS’ commitment enables us to significantly scale our ability to service the domestic middle-market real estate finance sector with first mortgage bridging finance and residual stock loans.”
Centuria Bass’s inaugural Australian Property Development and Finance Index, which surveyed developers, investors, fund managers and brokers, found 75% of all respondents saw their average loan size increase over the last five years to $10 million to $20 million.
Jason Huljich, Centuria joint CEO, said Centuria Bass “continues to grow its market share, providing real estate developers, investors, entrepreneurs and companies with various real estate finance products”.
In April, Centuria increased its investment in Centuria Bass to 80% from its original 50% stake, which was secured in mid-2021. Centuria Bass was founded in 2016.
Developers across Australia increasingly prefer to source finance from non-bank lenders after the major banks withdrew from the market. Macquarie is seizing on strong tailwinds in Australia’s real estate private credit market by investing in Melbourne-based specialist IDA, while Singapore’s CapitaLand Investment announced it would acquire Wingate for $200 million.
These latest players join a growing list of investors entering the market, including Warburg Pincus’s $490 million investment in MA Financial’s $1 billion Real Estate Credit Vehicle and PGIM Real Estate.
Meanwhile, former Wallabies star David Giffin is now responsible for Centuria Bass’ private lending origination and loan management across Australia and New Zealand.
Giffin helped lead Australia to victory in the 1999 Rugby World Cup and dedicated a decade to professional rugby.
He now has more than 20 years’ experience in private lending markets, having secured more than $5 billion of debt and equity in previous financial services roles in addition to more than $1 billion of capital for Taurus Motor Finance, a business he co-founded and managed for more than five years.
Taurus was acquired by Metrics Credit Partners.
Giffin has also been responsible for managing loan books exceeding $1 billion.
In his new role, Giffin will support Centuria Bass founders and joint CEOs Borten and Nick Goh.
“What sets us apart is targeting the underserviced real estate loan middle-market to enable developers to get shovels in the ground for new development projects and land subdivisions as well as see projects come to fruition through bridging finance and residual stock loans,” Goh and Borten said.
Prior to founding Taurus, Giffin held senior positions with numerous financial service organisations including Grant Samual (Capital Advisory) and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Currently, he is a non-executive director of aged care provider, Kopwa Limited, and was previously regional council president for children’s cancer charity, Redkite, between 2015-2018.
