Macquarie enters US commercial property loan market

Macquarie Group has expanded its US credit trading group, which was launched in 2008, by hiring a team of commercial property finance specialists, according to a Bloomberg News story.

The team will be headed by Randy Reiff, who ran commercial mortgages and commercial mortgage backed securities at Bear Stearns and JP Morgan.

Reiff was most recently president of Spartan Real Estate Capital. He has brought members of his team with him.

Macquarie is making a counter-cyclical move. Bloomberg says the US commercial mortgage business is plagued by plunging property prices and record default levels. Reiff's team will have its pick of $60 billion of CMBS refinancing opportunities that mature in 2011.