Gramercy Closes $1B CDO

Gramercy Capital Corp., New York, has announced the closing of Gramercy Real Estate CDO 2006-1, a $1 billion commercial real estate collateralized debt obligation.Gramercy said the CDO, which matures in 2041, is expected to reduce the company's weighted average cost of debt capital, enable it to offer a broader array of products and services, and improve its leveraged returns on equity capital. The CDO securities consist of $903.75 million of bonds that were purchased by institutional investors, plus $38.75 million of non-investment-grade bonds and $57.5 million of preferred equity and equity. More than 80% of the debt investments contributed to the CDO by Gramercy were first-mortgage loans secured by transitional and stabilized commercial properties. The company can be found online at http://www.gramercycapitalcorp.com.