The International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) has announce that the Bankers Forum will return for a second year based on popular demand from IHIF attendees. The forum will discuss what new business was written by Europe’s premier lenders in 2010 and will use case studies to discuss recent transactions that they were able to support throughout the year.

The Bankers Forum is scheduled to be held on the second day of the Conference, Tuesday 8 March at 16:30.

“We’re looking forward to another outstanding Bankers Forum where leading European lenders will speak directly to IHIF attendees about the state of the debt market by presenting a deal that has been successfully transacted in 2010. The session will give a clear picture of the current appetitie for lending to the industry and the challenges that lie ahead in 2011,” said Jonathan Worsley, Chairman of Bench Events and co-organiser of IHIF.

Hosted by Rod Taylor, Founder & Chairman of Taylor Global Advisors Ltd and Patrick Sanville, Director, Hotels of BNP Paribas Real Estate, the panel includes: Barbara Levi, Senior Banker-Hotel Sector, Credit Agricole CIB; Bettina Graef, Special Property Finance-Head of Hotel Properties, Aareal Bank AG; Bob Silk, Relationship Director-Hotels Team, Barclays Corporate; Jan Willem Van Roggen, Managing Director Real Estate & Hotels , NIBC Bank N.V.; Stephen Welch, Relationship Director-Hotels & Leisure, Santander Corporate Banking, Thibault Dutreix, Principal Banker, Property & Tourism, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Carole Tran Van Lieu, Director- Real Estate Structured Finance, Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking.

“Money remains the lifeblood of the industry and without it, new hotels cannot be constructed or refurbished and investors will be unable to close acquisitions. Getting finance has been difficult since late 2007, but there are signs that lender appetite is slowly returning, albeit at much lower levels than between 2004-2007,” said Rod Taylor, Founder and Chairman of Taylor Global Advisors and co-host of the Bankers Forum.

“This session will embody presentations by experienced lenders from a number of the major European banks in which they hope to share high level background about a number of transactions that have hit their lending sweet spot. If borrowers know what has encouraged a lender to commit, then this should be valuable knowledge. It could possibly be the difference between getting a deal off the ground in the future or not.”

“While some banks were relatively unscathed during the crisis, the fact remains that ALL banks will be affected by Basel III and, hence, the lending parameters going forward may never return to those of the heydays of hotel lending,” stated Barbara Levi, Senior Banker-Hotel Sector, Credit Agricole CIB and panellist of the Bankers Forum . “Nevertheless, banks still need to do deals and for well structured transactions for good clients, there should be no problem accessing the loan market.”

For more information and details on registering for the IHIF conference to be held 7-9 March in Berlin, visit the IHIF website.