Size constraints

Europe's first commercial real estate collateralised debt obligation was launched at the end of last year. But despite early predictions for growth, a scarcity of underlying assets and a lack of standardised documentation are likely to put a cap on the size of the market in the short term. Duncan Wood reports

Europe's first collateralised debt obligation (CDO) to be linked solely to commercial real estate (CRE) assets was supposed to launch last September. Investec and Bear Stearns - the deal's manager and arranger, respectively - had already been out on the road, talking to investors. Expectations for the new market were high, partly because of the startling growth seen in the US, where the $43.5