Implode-o-Meter News - U.S. mall investors set to lose billions as retail gloom deepens (SECURITIZED CMBS IMPLICATED!)

The dramatic shift to online shopping that has crushed U.S. department stores in recent years now threatens the investors who a decade ago funded the vast expanse of brick and mortar emporiums that many Americans no longer visit.
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Some $128 billion of commercial real estate loans -- more than one-quarter of which went to finance malls a decade ago -- are due to refinance between now and the end of 2017, according to Morningstar Credit Ratings.

Wells Fargo estimates that about $38 billion of these loans were taken out by retailers, bundled into commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) and sold to institutional investors. Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and other underwriters now reckon about half of all CMBS maturing in 2017 could struggle to get financing on current terms. Commercial mortgage debt often only pays off the interest and the principal must be refinanced.
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The crunch in the CMBS market means holders of nonperforming debt, such as pensions or hedge funds, stand to lose money. The mall owners, mostly real estate investment trusts (REITs), have avoided major losses because they can often shed their debt through an easy foreclosure process.
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Cumulative losses from mostly 10-year CMBS loans issued in 2005 through 2007 already reach $32.6 billion, a big jump from the average $1.23 billion incurred annually in the prior decade, according to Wells Fargo.

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U.S. mall investors set to lose billions as retail gloom deepens (SECURITIZED CMBS IMPLICATED!)