Unicredit to prepare a State-guaranteed securitisation for 2 mld €

05 October, Bebeez

Unicredit, together with doValue in the role of servicer, is currently working on a State-guaranteed securitisation for the value of 2 billion € concerning NPLs deriving from leasing. The operation is expected to be completed by the end of 2020. This is the first leasing transaction with State guarantee, as leasing non-performing holdings have always been closed so far by remarketing the repossessed assets.

Source: Bebeez

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

Goldman Sachs and Banca Finint bought from Ing Bank leasing performing credits and securitised contracts and assets for 1.6 billion euro

06 August, Bebeez

Ing Bank sold to Goldman Sachs and, for a minority quota, to Banca Finint a portfolio composed of performing and non-performing leasing credits for a total of 4 thousand holdings and a value of 1.6 billion euro.

Source: Bebeez

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

EY: Italian banks to sell 16 billion NPLs originated from real estate leasing

02 April, Il Sole 24 Ore

The derisking activities of the Italian banking sector will also concern NPEs derived from leasing for 19.3 billion euro, 81% of which is represented by real estate leasing, amounting to 15.6 billion in total.

Source: Il Sole 24 Ore

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

NPL portfolio for 40 million sold by Mediocredito Fvg

15 March, Il Friuli

Banca Mediocredito del Friuli Venezia Giulia, part of Gruppo Bancario Cooperativo Iccrea, completed the transfer of a portfolio consisting in NPLs and defaulting real estate leasing contracts for a total of 40 million euro. The portfolio was acquired by a leading Italian financial institution.

Source: Il Friuli

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

Kryalos Sgr: leasing agreement with Spaces for a property in Via Vittorio Veneto, 54 in Rome of the fund All Star. A second office in the Capital will open soon

06 February, Kryalos

Just after the opening of its first business centre in the Capital in EUR, Spaces has chosen another of the assets managed by Kryalos Sgr for the opening of a second location. The property is a trophy asset located in Via Vittorio Veneto, 54 owned by the fund All Star.

The property is in the Rome old town, in the neighbourhood of Ludovisi, 300 metres from the Barberini metro station. The building is composed of one level underground and six floors above ground, covering a surface of approximately 4,000 Sq m, mainly for office use.

The opening of the new Spaces location is expected by the end of 2019 when the fit-out will be completed.

This is a very ambitious and innovative project concerning old town Rome, as it offers more than just a co-working or an office. The space will be dedicated to creativity, with the creation of an actual business community. Thanks to the versatility of its interiors, the area can meet the needs for flexibility of contemporary professionals.

Spaces is a company of the group IWG, which also owns Regus. The company had already chosen in the past two other assets managed by Kryalos SGR for its Milan location. One property is located in Bastioni di Porta Nuova 21, and it belongs to the fund Kensington. The space was inaugurated in May 2017. The other asset is in Via Pola, 11, and it’s owned by the fund Value Add I Italy. The opening is scheduled in March.

Kryalos SGR Ceo Paolo Bottelli commented: “the location in Via Vittorio Veneto confirms the solid partnership between Kryalos and Spaces, to whom we have provided prime properties consistent with the concept and the strategy of Spaces, as well as with the product the company intends to offer”.

Paolo Bottelli concluded: “Moreover, this operation confirms the interest in Rome. The city is experiencing a growth in the business segment concerning high-quality assets”.

“The revolution of workplaces is a reality also in Italy. Concerning the proportion between the dimensions of cities, the existing businesses and the number of spaces, I would say that we’re aligned with the main European cities”, commented Mauro Mordini Spaces country manager for Italy. “In 2014, there were ten spaces in Italy, they were 50 at the end of 2018, and we have a number of new openings in the pipeline for this year. The Italian market of flexible workplaces has still many opportunities to offer”.

Source: Kryalos

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

Mps selling NPLs for 3.3 billion

09 November, Yahoo Finanza

Mps is currently in the process of selling NPLs for 33 billion euro by the end of 2018, as the Ceo Marco Morelli announced during the conference call with the analysts to discuss the performance of the first nine months of the year. He added: “we’re about to receive the binding offers in the upcoming weeks”.

The operation concerns a portfolio 2.2-billion-euro worth of unsecured loans, while 200 million euro are originated by consumer credit and a third part amounting to 900 million euro comes from leasing (600 million backed by real estate and 300 million concerning the leasing of machinery).

Source: Yahoo Finanza

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

Ing transferring its Italian real estate leasing portfolio to Goldman Sachs

03 November, Milano Finanza

Ing Group wants to sell its portfolio of Italian real estate leasing contracts pursuing its operations to reduce the activities in this sector outside the domestic market. The buyer is allegedly the American Goldman Sachs. The sale concerns a portfolio of real estate leasing contracts both performing and non-performing. According to the letter sent by the bank to the unions, the operation is supposed to be officialised by both parts by the beginning of December and completed by the first quarter of 2019. The transfer will imply a cut in the staff by 31 employees.

After having evaluated several offers, Ing chose Godman Sachs, Finanziaria Internazionale partner in Italy. In 2006 Ing estimated its real estate leasing portfolio as amounting to 2.5 billion euro, namely the best performance among the bank’s local offices. In 2013 Ing started the divestiture process of the portfolio due to the reduction in the returns.

Source: Milano Finanza

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

Securitisations for leasing NPLs, a possible new amendment from the Chamber. It might release resources for 6.3 billion

14 December, Bebeez

A new amendment regarding the securitisation of NPLs is currently under discussion and it might be included in 2018 budget. 

After that the chapter dedicated to new adjustments of Law 130 on securitisations was totally rejected, the experts were hoping to re-propose to the Chambers one or more amendments that would summarize the main topics to improve the regulation. An amendment has been indeed presented and it will also be admitted into the discussions regarding the new budget, which will be voted soon.

This amendment, the number 110.17, however, presented by Paolo Petrini, Vice-president for the Finance Commission of the Chamber, concerns only the last changes introduced in June with the Law 130 on securitisations of leasing contracts. They’re certainly interesting adjustments, but not so relevant as the market was expecting since the same Alessandro Rivera,  responsible for the Policy and Regulation of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said that he would work on law 130 before the end of the current administration.

More in detail, the aim of the amendment is to admit the consolidation of the vehicle company not only in the financial statement of the bank but also in that of the financial intermediary authorized to carry out the leasing activity.

The current regulation, in fact, states that the special purpose vehicle appointed for the securitisation might buy directly real estate assets and contracts. It states also, however, that a support vehicle company might be constituted, in the form of a corporation, with the sole objective of acquiring, managing and promoting those assets and contracts, in the exclusive interest of the securitisation operation. But this support vehicle nowadays can only be included in the financial statement of the bank. If the special purpose vehicle could do the same, without constituting another vehicle, it would save time and money. Alternatively, the amendment proposes, in order to simplify things, that it would be ideal that the support vehicle would be constituted not only by a bank but also by an intermediary.

Among the problems of the current regulation, there is also the impossibility of transferring assets suffering from planning and cadastral irregularities, which is true for the most part of assets associated with non-performing leasing contracts, where such irregularities are due to the owner of the assets, and not to the leasing company. If there is no exception concerning the securitisation of leasing NPLs because the transfer will be considered void and notaries will refuse to proceed. Without a waiver in such cases of void operations on the Civil Code, the new regulation of June risks not being helpful when it comes to securitise NPLs related to leasing contracts, because who buys these portfolios asks for an indemnity to cover the risks associated with it, reducing in this way the transfer price. For this reason, the amendment asks to consider the temporal deferment of the regulation steps, giving the responsibility for their fulfilment to the intermediary, as already dictated by the “bank decree”.

At the date of 30th June 2017, the stock of non-performing leasing contracts amounted to little less than 24 billion euro and the securitisations of these defaulting leasing might allow to save up to 30% on the RWA (Risk Weighted Assets, namely the assets weighted on the risk according to the coefficients set by the European regulation on the minimal assets requirements for banks facing credit risk) calculated on such impaired portfolio. The total of the assets released through this securitisation would be over 6.3 billion euro, an amount equal to 7% of the whole leasing portfolio registered on 30th June.

The non-performing credits from leasing were 25.6 billion euro gross at the end of 2016 on a total of 93 billion euro paid, calculated Katia Mariotti, partner for non-performing exposures & non-core asset Mediterranean leader for EY during her participation at the Assilea conference. Of these credits, 19.5 billion (76%) were property leasing contracts, 12.7 billion (65%) of which were non-performing.

At the end of September 2017, EY estimated a slight reduction of the total leasing non-performing exposures (-1.0% gross and -0.9% net of adjustments), with the gross NPE ratio set at 26% (from the 27.5% of September 2016) and the net one for 17% (from 19.1%). Considering the NPLs only, the NPL ratio was 17% with over 80% of bad loans referring to real estate assets for a value of 12.5 billion euro, equal to 14% of the total gross leasing exposures.

Source: Bebeez

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi

Goldman Sachs and Finint, purchase of NPL for 483 million from Hypo Bank

06 November, First Online

The group Finint communicated that the first operation was finalised, with Goldman Sachs in the role of investor, concerning the transfer of a leasing portfolio with the consequent transfer of the underlying contracts and assets. The portfolio, sold to Hypo Bank, concerns 1,860 positions for an amount in terms of Gbv equal to 483 million euro of performing credits at the date of reference.

This is a pioneering operation, explains the memo from the Conegliano-based financial company, implemented according to a scheme introduced by the Law 130/99 on securitisations approved last June. The law sees the transfer, from one side, of a credit portfolio to a company for the securitisation and, on the other side, the transfer of the related contracts and underlying assets to an ad hoc company (LeasingCo) of the same group of the bank.

The operation is structured in a way that it allows the appreciation of the guarantees of the credits represented by the assets, explains the memo from Finint. Moreover, it introduces, for the first time in Italy, the great opportunity for seller and investor to solve the problem related to the transfer of performing and non-performing loans for leasing contracts.

This sector has been left out from the transfer operations in the recent years due to the difficulties related to the transfer of contracts and the underlying assets that, in absence of an efficient structure, had to stay under the ownership of the leasing company. This latter represents a considerable source of funding for Italian SMEs. Now, leasing companies have an instrument to disinvest impaired assets and not only.

The operation has seen involved Goldman Sachs in the role of investor and the group Finint, for which Securitisation Services has intervened in the role of securitisation servicers and in the implementation of the company and of LeasingCo, Agenzia Italia in the role of primary servicer, appointed for the management of credits, contracts and assets, and Finint Revalue in the role of special servicer for the credit collection activity, as well as Banca Finint in the roles of account bank and principal paying agent in the securitisation.

“We’re very happy to have concluded, in partnership with Goldman Sachs, a pioneering operation in the leasing sector – states Finint president, Enrico Marchi – The evolution in the securitisation of leasing credits in Italy has been growing since 2016 and the new regulation offers many advantages, both for the leasing company, that finds in securitisation an important source of funding, and for investors, who can benefit from a finer granularity  and more diversity in terms of geographic areas and sectors of the underlying portfolios”.

Source: First Online

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi