Island Capital Group has acquired 100 per cent of Centerline's institutional real estate debt fund management and commercial mortgage loan servicing businesses through its affiliate C-III Capital Partners.

The transaction makes the newly created private company one of the largest special servicers of CMBS in the US.

It is presently the named special servicer for approximately USD110bn of loans in 81 CMBS securitizations.

In connection with the acquisition, Island Capital has completed a total restructuring of Centerline's financial structure and core business operations by eliminating approximately USD1.6bn of debt, contingent liabilities and preferred equity.

Island Capital affiliates provided in excess of USD100m of new cash equity in connection with the acquisition and restructuring, and C-III will also own approximately 40 per cent of Centerline, which will remain as a public company.

Subsidiaries of Anubis Advisors, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Island Capital, have been retained as the exclusive external managers for C-III and Centerline. Anubis will provide strategic planning, corporate management, restructuring, M&A and other financial services to both companies.

C-III will operate as special servicer for CMBS through its wholly-owned subsidiary Centerline Servicing, which is currently the named special servicer for approximately USD110bn of loan in 81 CMBS securitizations. Other C-III subsidiaries also control real estate debt investments that have a face value of approximately USD3.1bn.

Under Anubis's management, C-III's intention is to integrate a principal capital deployment and M&A strategy within its operations to acquire incremental CMBS, CMBS fund managers and other servicing operations. C-III also intends to pursue institutional third-party servicing relationships and to expand into business lines complementary to those in which it presently operates.