Sareb Considers Slicing Up Haya Real Estate’s €24bn Mega-Contract

27 March 2018 – Voz Pópuli

Sareb is already working on a new tender for its largest management contract. Specifically, it involves old real estate loans from Bankia worth €24 billion that are currently being administered by Haya Real Estate, the real estate arm of Cerberus. The contract is due to terminate at the end of 2019, but Sareb is already working on different options to launch a tender in the short-term and for the portfolio to be awarded in just over a year.

One of the options on the table involves slicing up the contract into two or more mandates, according to confirmation provided by Sareb to this newspaper.

There are several options under consideration at the moment. The first, placing the €24 billion (in gross terms, the figure amounts to €13 billion in net terms) servicing contract, as it stands today, with a single manager, which could be Haya Real Estate or could be one of its large competitors, such as Altamira, Aktua, Servihabitat, Solvia or Aliseda-Anticipa (Blackstone).

That scenario is the one that most interests Haya Real Estate, which has a lot at stake with this contract, given that it represents 60% of its assets under management, and the firm is in the midst of its stock market debut. It is interested because Cerberus’s platform is the one that knows the assets the best and has the advantage of not having to migrate them, which would slow down Sareb’s rate of sales.

Other options

Alternatively, the mega-contract could be shared out between several platforms. One of the options under consideration is to tender a contract linked to the ownership of the assets. In other words, a large operation like those that Santander and BBVA starred in last year with Blackstone – Project Quasar – and Cerberus – Project Marina -, respectively.

That would also involve the creation of a joint venture company, like the FAB. In this way, Sareb would kill two birds with one stone: deconsolidate assets without forgoing potential gains; and award the management of the assets to a fund-platform.

Another option on the table is to split Haya’s portfolio into two or more batches. That split could be performed by type of asset, linked to the debt (tertiary, residential, land…), or by geographical area, whereby benefitting from the specialisation of the platforms.

The first contract to be renewed is Haya Real Estate’s. The other three are not due to terminate until 2021: Altamira’s with 28,000 properties from the portfolios of Catalunya Banc, Caja 3 and BMN; Solvia’s with 34,000 properties proceeding from Bankia; and Servihabitat’s, with properties and loans from NCG, Liberbank and Banco de Valencia.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake