Sareb Expects Its Business To Normalise By Start Of 2016

20 October 2015 – Expansión

Sareb is close to restoring the cruising speed of its business. That is what its President, Jaime Echegoyen, confirmed yesterday before the Senate’s Finance Committee: “From what we are seeing and given the pressure we are exerting to ensure that the migration of assets (to the new managers: Haya, Altamira, Servihabitat and Solvia) is completed as quickly as possible, I think that we will be back to providing a normal level of service by the first quarter of next year”.

This (migration) process caused Sareb’s turnover to drop by 10% during the first half of 2015. Echegoyen confirmed that the arrival of the new managers is already being felt in the second half of the year, despite the fact that the handover will not conclude until the beginning of 2016: “During the second half of the year, we are already in a much better position to fulfil our objectives and undertake our commercial activity than we were during the first half, and that will all be reflected in the numbers”, he said.

The transfer of assets was one of the points of interest during Echegoyen’s appearance in the Senate, together with the new accounting circular pursuant to which Sareb will have to make extraordinary provisions at the end of the year.

“In the likely event that capital requirements arise, the company has €3,600 million of convertible subordinated debt, which is more than sufficient to meet the requirements of the accounting circular”, explained Echegoyen. In response to questions from members of parliament, the President of Sareb went even further and said that “these own resources are sufficient to enable the company to fulfil its mandate and its business plan over the remainder of the entity’s twelve year life”.

Social housing

Echegoyen also used his appearance to announce that Sareb will double the number of homes available for social purposes, from 2,000 to 4,000, through the agreements it has in place with several autonomous regions and town halls, such as Madrid and Barcelona.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake