BBVA Gauges Investor Appetite For Two Big Portfolios

29 June 2015 – WSJ

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA is sounding out investor appetite for two large portfolios of non-performing debt and real estate assets, according to sources briefed on the potential deals, as Spain’s economic recovery helps banks shed more of their bad loans.

BBVA, Spain’s No. 2 bank by market value, has spoken with investors in recent weeks to gauge their interest in the purchase of a portfolio that could contain around €1 billion worth of non-performing real estate loans and repossessed property assets and another portfolio that could contain between €500 million to €1 billion worth of nonperforming consumer, business and real estate loans.

BBVA has not sent investors “teasers”—documents that lay out details of an operation—because the parameters of the potential deals are still being designed, and the portfolios may not materialize, some of the sources said.

One source said that BBVA could formalize the sale of the two portfolios in September, and that the large size of the potential deals indicates that the portfolios could be partitioned and sold to various investors.

A spokesman for BBVA declined to comment.

Amid strong demand for Spanish real-estate assets, BBVA has hired KPMG LLP to oversee the sale of its loan-recovery unit. (…). A spokesman for KPMG also declined to comment.

Background

The potential sale by BBVA follows efforts by other Spanish lenders to sell real estate assets. They are encouraged by an economic growth rate—forecast by the Bank of Spain to reach 3.1% this year—that is outpacing that of other major eurozone countries.

Bankia SA has recently received non binding offers for €4.8 billion of property, including 38,545 residential units, 4,938 commercial units and 2,589 plots of land throughout Spain, according to a deal document sent to investors by Credit Suisse Group AG in April. Spain spent €22.4 billion in European Union funds to bail out Bankia in 2012. (…)

Spanish lender Banco de Sabadell SA sold its unpaid debt management and collection unit last July to Norwegian debt collection company Lindorff Group.

Major investors, such as Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG Capital Management, have stepped up their presence in Spain’s property market, as the economic recovery has helped to buoy real estate prices in some cities. (…).

Blackstone Group also bought the real estate servicer of bailed-out lender Catalunya Banc SA, and paid €3.6 billion to buy €6.4 billion of home loans issued by the bank.

Apollo, TPG, Cerberus Capital Management LP and Sabadell were selected in December by Spain’s “bad bank” to market and sell billions of property assets on its behalf, a contract that brings commissions and insight into the real-estate market.

Investors and analysts expect the real-estate servicers to consolidate in coming years as investment funds continue to seek high returns while they whittle down the amount of foreclosures and bad loans they oversee.

Original story: WSJ (by Jeannette Neumann)

Edited by: Carmel Drake