Sareb Will Receive €177M From Its Asset Managers In June

16 June 2015 – Cinco Días

Haya, Solvia, Altamira and Servihabitat must pay Sareb €177 million before 30 June 2015 to make good the total amount (€588.6 million) that they agreed to pay as a deposit for taking over the management of the bulk of the bad bank’s assets. The asset transfer has already been completed in the case of Sabadell’s platform and will be completed this year for the remainder.

Sareb is immersed in the so-called “Project Híspalis”, the transfer of the management of 169,461 assets worth €48,200 million to four real estate platforms, which won the tender opened by the bad bank last December to professionalise the marketing of its assets.

The four platforms are: Solvia, the real estate arm of Banco Sabadell; Haya Real Estate, the platform created by the fund Cerberus to manage the property portfolio that it was awarded by Bankia; Altamira, in which the fund Apollo holds a 85% stake following its purchase from Banco Santander; and Servihabitat, the real estate arm of CaixaBank, in which the fund TPG holds a 51% stake. On the basis of the commercial agreement signed, these four firms must pay Sareb €177 million before the end of the month.

This is the last outstanding payment of the total amount (€588.6 million) that the four platforms agreed to pay Sareb as collateral for the contract awarded. The asset managers will recover these funds, together with the commission agreed, as they begin to fulfil the sales objectives that were set.

The four companies had already paid €411.85 million by the end of last year and according to Sareb’s annual accounts, they must pay “the outstanding amount no later than 30 June 2015”. Although this income would represent a significant boost to Sareb’s results, which has recorded losses in each of the last two years and is awaiting (the publication of) an accounting circular, the company has stated that it will set this income aside given that, sooner or later, it will have to return it.

The assets transferred have more than four million documents associated with them and involve the hand over of 352,000 keys – a complex operation involving 200 people from Sareb and one thousand people from the management platforms. Hence the handovers are happening progressively and, according to sources close to the process, will not be completed until at least the autumn and in some cases, until the end of the year.

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Original story: Cinco Días (by Juande Portillo)

Translation: Carmel Drake