CBRE/GFI, a collaboration between GFI Group and CB Richard Ellis, has brokered the first interbank U.S. commercial real estate derivative transaction. The counterparties to the trade were both major international banks.
“I believe real estate derivatives will prove to be a very efficient way to either hedge or gain exposure to property,” says Philip Barker, vice president for real estate derivatives at CBRE/GFI. “I anticipate that this will be the first of many trades as the benefits of derivatives on real estate become more widely understood.”