Private equity eyes UK property funding role

September 6 - Reuters (London) - Private equity smells an opportunity in UK commercial property. Prices are falling, but developers cannot get the funds to buy bargains because lenders rocked by the subprime crisis are running shy of the sector.

Unlike the vulture funds of the 1990s though, these opportunists are not planning hostile takeovers of property firms paralysed by a lack of credit.

Instead, private equity sees itself as "white knight", offering its own cash for funding should the need arise, with a view to a more traditional debt refinancing when banks' appetite for lending returns. Read More.