Sareb Sets Itself an Online Sales Challenge: €1.8bn in NPLs

10 July 2018 – El Economista

Sareb has launched a new wave of non-performing loans for sale on its online marketing channel, aimed at investors and professionals, to boost the divestment of €1.8 billion, equivalent to 7.2% of its portfolio of financial assets, according to sources at the company speaking to Europa Press.

Since July 2017, Sareb has had a dedicated loan sales channel for investors and professionals, a pioneering initiative in the European market, which allows it to promote divestment and increase the visibility of these kinds of assets.

The aim of the so-called bad bank is to enhance the transparency of the sales processes of these types of assets, which are now in their fourth wave. At the end of 2017, it had managed to sell loans with a nominal value of €186 million, €35 million through its website and €151 million through its servicers, which also have specific platforms to market these portfolios.

The guarantees associated with these loans mainly constitute mortgages over properties of different kinds: finished residential homes, work in progress buildings and land.

With this channel, Sareb is continuing to push ahead with its divestment process and its commitment to a more dynamic and transparent loan market, according to Expansion.

The channel is aimed at investors and professionals who fulfil a series of minimum eligibility requirements. Sareb’s aim is to expand the number and profile of investors who can participate in its loan sale processes, whereby facilitating divestment in the segment. In this way, the players that may operate on the channel include international and domestic professionals, as well as local operators interested in the loans.

Sareb has a loan volume amounting to more than €25 billion proceeding from almost 14,575 debtors. All of them have a combined debt of €70.4 billion, including associated interest and expenses. In order to recover those amounts, the entity carries out an active management process that allows it to ensure the payment of interest on the loans and, where possible, their repayment or cancellation.

When it was constituted, Sareb received around 200,000 assets worth €50.8 billion, of which 80% were loans and property developer credits and 20% were properties.

After five years of life, Sareb has reduced its portfolio by more than €13.6 billion. Currently, its portfolio of assets comprises 67.3% in loans and 32.6% in properties.

Sareb issued debt backed by the Spanish State to pay the rescued entities for the assets that they transferred to the company. The company is complying with the repayment of that debt, and to date has repaid more than €12.9 billion.

Original story: El Economista 

Translation: Carmel Drake