Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group acted as a structuring lead on Starwood Property Trust‘s first project finance collateralized loan obligation, STWD 2021-SIF1.

The deal also represents MUFG’s first structuring lead mandate on a project finance CLO, with this CLO backed by a pool of $500 million project finance and corporate infrastructure loans secured primarily by long-term, critical, core infrastructure projects. STWD 2021-SIF1 was designed to optimize Starwood’s portfolio management strategy while leveraging MUFG’s experience in project finance loans.

“This is a milestone transaction for our securitized products group. We saw demand from the U.S. and Europe, as investors are looking for deals backed by project finance loans in order to diversify their investments and risk profile,” Tricia Hazelwood, international head of securitized products at MUFG, said. “We saw superior execution for Classes A through D of this CLO, including a number of first-time investors in the project finance space.”

“We are very excited to announce the pricing of our inaugural energy infrastructure CLO, a first of its kind in the structured finance markets,” Andrew Sossen, chief operating officer of Starwood Property Trust, said. “This important transaction enhances our asset returns with match term financing that is non-recourse and has no mark-to-market exposure. We intend this CLO to be the first of many for Starwood Infrastructure Finance.”

The CLO is managed by STWD Investment Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Starwood Property Trust.

Starwood Property Trust is a finance company with a core focus on the real estate and infrastructure sectors. An affiliate of global private investment firm Starwood Capital Group, the company has deployed more than $66 billion of capital since inception and manages a portfolio of more than $18 billion across debt and equity investments.