Project Traveler: Sabadell Sells €364M NPL Portfolio To Bain

29 December 2016 – Vozpópuli

The fund Bain Capital Credit (formerly Sankaty) is consolidating its presence in the financial-real estate sector with its fourth acquisition this year. Within the last few days, the investor, which is one of the largest private equity funds in the world, has acquired a portfolio from Banco Sabadell: Project Traveler contains debt relating to 60 developments and hotels worth €364 million.

The entity chaired by Josep Oliu has received around €150 million from this operation, according to financial sources consulted. As such, Sabadell has removed some more non-strategic assets from its balance sheet, which were consuming capital and provisions. This bank is one of the most active in these types of sales as it continues to clean up its balance sheet.

With this acquisition, Bain Capital Credit brings to an end a record year for investment in Spain. The fund has been awarded four large banking portfolios (two from Sabadell, one from Cajamar and one from Bankia) with a combined value of €1,510 million. Given that the banks are selling their real estate debt at prices of between 0.3 and 0.4 times the nominal value, Bain must have spent more than €500 million on these purchases.

As such, the US fund has placed itself amongst the major players in the market for the purchase of distressed assets (those close to bankruptcy) from the banks, alongside Blackstone, Apollo, Goldman Sachs, Cerberus, Oaktree and Deutsche Bank.

“We continue to see Spain as one of the most attractive markets in Europe. We see potential for future investments in the south of Europe, particularly in the real estate sector and the field of unpaid loans”, said Fabio Longo, Director General and Head of European Business at Bain Capital Credit for the real estate sector and doubtful debt.

The other portfolio Bain purchased from Sabadell contained non-performing loans to property developers, with a nominal value of €415 million. Cajamar sold Bain a package of loans worth €511 million, with the special feature that they were all loans to real estate companies that had filed for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Bankia awarded Bain a batch of 2,500 homes with a combined appraisal value of €220 million. (…).

Copernicus provided financial advisory in this transaction; Aura REE, CBRE, Horwath and Cushman & Wakefield were the real estate valuations providers; Allen & Overy was the legal advisor.

Original story: Vozpópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

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