Commerzbank Starts Off With Sale of Credits Worth 4.500 Million Euros Granted For Property in Spain

21/01/2014 – ExpansionPro

The German bank sells its real estate branch, Eurohypo (now called Hypothekenbank), trying to benefit from foreign interest in Spain. (…).

In order to achieve that, the entity hired Lazard (…) that will find a buyer for €5.000 million in credits on sale that are associated with the Spanish real estate. Many of them were granted short after the bubble peak.

The portfolio includes all kinds of credits backed by mortgage assets, some of them are outstanding (€3.000 million) and some defaulting (€1.500 million) credits. (…) For instance, they are debts of Bami, Martinsa-Fadesa, Inmobiliaria Chamartin or the Zielo de Pozuelo and the H2O shopping centers in Madrid area. Almost half of the assets is located in Madrid and a great number of them is backed by huge office buildings.

The sale, named Operación Octopus, called attention of funds, such as Fortress, Lone Star, Cerberus, Blackstone or Apollo that are already exploring the portfolio´s content. (…).

The operation will seal Eurohypo´s leave from Spain, begun in 2009 (…).

One of the real estate assets sold by Eurohypo after the bubble burst was the ABC Serrano shopping mall, transferred to Reyal Urbis. Soon after the center was bought by IBA Capital for €96 million. (…).

Also, the real estate branch of Commerzbank has recently got rid of its shareholding in Colonial, selling it to Canadian Brookfield. (…).

Original article: ExpansiónPro (21 enero 2014, Expansión, pp 15)

Translation: AURA REE