The investing appetite boosts. The “cake” on sale could reach 5.000 million Euros.

“The last quarter of the year is usually the one with more activity”, Juan F. Vizcaíno, managing director and founder of Hipoges Iberia, a platform specialized in the management of default credits and awarded assets, declares. A feeling corroborated by Chris Zlatarev, in charge of the real estate investments and the acquisition of portfolios of loans at HIG Bayside Capital: “There are many operations in the market”.

Sareb´s machinery is well greased and it has seven portfolios on sale which it hopes to close before the end of the year. Several sources think the bad bank could put some more portfolios on the market in the next three weeks. In fact, the bad bank hopes to reach the business volume established for this year, around 1.500 million Euros. And although it is not informing about the profit obtained with the last operations, it assures there are gains.

“The volume of assets on sale, between Sareb and the rest of financial institutions, could reach 5.000 million Euros”, Vizcaino, whose managing company has been extremely active in the last few months and which includes assets for a value of 2.632 million Euros, adds.

Banks have also gotten on with it to get rid both of their subsidiaries and real estate managing platforms and of their portfolios of consumer and company credits. The most attractive operation in this sector would be the sale of Altamira, the real estate subsidiary of Banco Santander. HIG could close a transaction for the acquisition of retail assets in the next two months.

(…) Although some of the investors admit that “the banking assets are not the best in the market, there are some which cannot be sold right away”, most of them see there are very interesting opportunities. “There are no good or bad assets, the important thing is to find the right price. But, in general, Sareb is doing a very detailed due diligence job”, another investor adds. “Finally banks have realized that with most of the portfolio valued at zero it is easier to sell certain assets, although some continue to offer resistance to discounts”, Paz Ambrosy, managing partner at Global Institutional Investors, points out. (…)