Tag: debt recovery

Debt Recovery Firm KRUK Prepares to Make its Real Estate Debut

18 March 2019 – Bolsa Mania

The debt recovery firm KRUK is getting ready to enter the real estate market. The company, which has already acquired debt portfolios in other segments (e.g. consumer loans) from entities such as Bankia and Unicaja, now wants to start buying real estate-related debt portfolios from the banks, servicers and Sareb.

Until now, the group has specialised in the unsecured segment in Spain. Last year, it acquired a portfolio of doubtful consumer loans from Bankia and a year earlier, it did the same with another similar portfolio from Unicaja. A few months ago, it purchased another from Carrefour’s financial arm.

Further afield, the company currently has a presence in Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Italy and Spain, with the last two markets representing its priorities for the time being.

Original story: Bolsa Mania (by Elena Lozano)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Axactor & Grove Compete to Acquire Sareb’s Largest NPL Portfolio

23 July 2018 – Voz Pópuli

The Norwegian investment fund Axactor and the US fund Grove, which is in the process of merging with the British firm Cabot, are competing to be awarded a non-performing loan portfolio with a nominal value of €2.335 billion by Sareb. The portfolio is the largest of its kind to be sold by the company chaired by Jaime Echegoyen (pictured below), according to financial sources consulted by Vozpópuli.

Sareb has recently received binding offers from the two aforementioned funds, as well as from Kruk, a Polish company specialising in debt recovery. Nevertheless, the proposal made by the latter was well below those submitted by the other two. According to the sources consulted, the Norwegian fund, which recently acquired a €900 million portfolio from Sabadell, as this newspaper revealed, looks to be the favourite to win the auction this time around.

The portfolio in question, which forms part of Project Dune, regarding which Sareb is being advised by KPMG, comprises unsecured non-performing loans. In fact, the assets are mortgage tails – loans that have not been repaid following the execution of their corresponding mortgage contracts – from small- and medium-sized property developers.

In this specific operation, the offers that the interested parties have presented reflect significant discounts, which may even amount to 99% of the nominal value of the portfolio, with the aim of trying to recover the maximum possible amount of the debt, which is no longer secured by any collateral.

Gains

In any case, whatever Sareb obtains for this portfolio will represent a gain for the entity, given that all of the loans, which are considered almost irrecoverable, have already been fully provisioned. The completion of the operation will happen in the month of September, at the earliest, according to the sources consulted.

Last week, Sareb shelved the block sale of between €20 billion and €30 billion in real estate assets due to the high cost of the operation. In fact, the Board of Directors of the entity known as the bad bank decided not to undertake that operation for the time being, due to the capital hole that the sale of those assets would have generated for the acquiring fund, which require higher discounts than individual investors.

That deal was called Project Alpha and Goldman Sachs had been working on it for months, to determine how, when and to whom the portfolio could be sold. Sareb was also supported in that deal by the consultancy firm CBRE and the audit firm EY (…).

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Pepe Bravo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cerberus Prepares for Haya’s Stock Market Debut After the Summer

9 February 2018 – Cinco Días

Metrovacesa achieved it on Tuesday, despite problems to cover supply and the nefarious stock market session that it suffered. The large Spanish property developer, which abandoned the equity market in May 2013, made its return last week. It hasn’t exactly eased the way for the upcoming debuts of Vía Célere, owned by the fund Värde, or the Socimi Testa. But it hasn’t made a total hash of it either.

In this way, the US fund Cerberus is in the process of contracting the banks that will handle the debut its Spanish real estate servicer subsidiary on the stock market. The aim is for that firm to be listed from September. The entities that are on the list of candidates have already done their calculations and are citing a valuation for the company, albeit preliminary, of around €1.2 billion. The aim is to place between 35% and 50% of Haya Real Estate’s capital at this stage. A spokesman for the company declined to comment on this information.

The company, which was created in October 2013, manages property developer loans and foreclosed real estate assets from Bankia, Sareb, Cajamar, Liberbank, BBVA and other financial institutions, worth €39.88 billion at the end of September 2017.

The process of going public is the logical next step, after Haya placed €475 million in high yield bonds in November, with ratings of B3 (Moody’s) and B- (S&P). In other words, in the junk bond range, six levels below investment grade.

The underwriters of that debt, which matures in 2022, were Santander, Bankia, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. And they sold it with considerable success. Despite its credit rating, the firm pays an annual return of just over 5% for that liability.

Haya, led by Carlos Abad Rico (formerly of Canal + and Sogecable) offers services across the whole real estate value chain, but it is not a property developer. Rather, it manages, administers, securitises (…) and sells real estate assets such as homes and offices, but it does not own any of the properties.

Bankia Habitat was the seedling of Haya, and it has grown in line with the need by the financial sector to get rid of assets linked to property. One of Haya’s key businesses is the management of loans linked to the real estate sector. It advises on loans and guarantees, recovers debt and converts loans into foreclosed real estate assets.

The other major part of its revenues stems from the recovery and management of properties through their sale or rental. Haya employs 680 professionals and has a sales network of 2,400 brokers. The value of its property developer debt portfolio amounts to €28.7 billion and its real estate asset portfolio amounts to €11.2 billion. Moreover, Haya is going to bid to manage the assets sold by BBVA to Cerberus in November. Haya’s current shareholder acquired 80% of the BBVA’s portfolio of real estate assets, amounting to around €13 billion, for €4 billion (…)

Consolidation

The Spanish banks’ other real estate management companies are waiting for Cerberus to make the first move, according to financial sources. Haya will open the door to the stock market for them if everything goes well or it will serve to consolidate the sector, both here and in Europe.

There are three high profile players on the list. Servihabitat, which manages assets amounting to around €50 billion and which belongs to the fund Texas Pacific Group (TPG), which has held a 51% stake since September 2013, when CaixaBank sold it that percentage; the bank still holds onto the remaining 49%. Altamira, owned by Santander (15%) and the fund Apollo (85%), which also handles assets worth around €50 million in Spain. The volume managed by Solvia, owned by Sabadell, amounts to around €31 billion.

Moody’s warns that the business of Haya Real Estate, the largest company in the sector in Spain, depends on the economic performance of the company and the renewal of its current management contracts. Specifically, one of the most important, with Sareb (…), signed in 2013, is due to expire in December next year.

In terms of its strengths, the ratings agency indicates Haya’s extensive knowledge of the market and its high margins. The firm’s gross operating profit (EBITDA) during the first nine months of last year amounted to €89.8 million, with net income (the amount really invoiced by the company) of €165.8 million.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Pablo Martín Simón and Laura Salces)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Haya Real Estate Prepares for its Stock Market Debut

23 January 2018 – Cinco Días

Haya Real Estate is another player in the real estate sector that is heading towards the stock market. The firm manages property developer loans and foreclosed real estate assets on behalf of Bankia, Sareb, Cajamar, Liberbank, BBVA and other financial institutions, worth €39.884 billion.

The company is owned by the private equity fund Cerberus, which created it back in October 2013 after acquiring a firm dedicated to real estate management from Bankia, called Bankia Habitat, in light of the need for the Spanish financial sector to get rid of its property-related toxic assets in a professional way.

Sources at the investment bank indicate that Haya’s debut on the Spanish stock market has been sketched out and will follow the format of the debuts of the property developers Neinor and Aedas, in 2017, and the upcoming debuts of Metrovacesa and Vía Célere. No decision has yet been taken regarding the valuation or percentage of the stake that Cerberus will sell. The news of Haya’s possible stock market debut was published by Bloomberg on Monday night. A spokesperson for Haya declined to comment on the news.

Haya, led by Carlos Abad Rico (formerly of Canal + and Sogecable) offers services throughout the entire chain of the real estate sector, but it is not a property developer: it manages, administers, securitises and sells assets but does not own them. The company mainly focuses on two businesses. Firstly, the advice and subscription of loans and guarantees, the management and recovery of debt and the conversion of the obligations on property developer loans into foreclosed real estate assets. And, secondly, the recovery and management of property through its sale or rental. The firm employs 680 professionals and has a sales network comprising 2,400 brokers. The value of the firm’s property developer debt portfolio amounts to €28.719 billion and of its real estate assets is €11.165 billion.

Haya recorded EBITDA of €89.9 million during the first nine months of 2017, up by 54% compared to the same period a year earlier, with sales of assets worth around €2.5 billion and an effective turnover (essentially commissions) of €165.8 million. The average management fee during the first nine months of last year was 4.25%.

Competitors

Haya has been growing with aplomb since 2013, but it has several major rivals. Blackstone, which purchased 51% of Popular’s real estate assets from Santander last summer for more than €5 billion, created Anticipa Real Estate, under the structure of the former Cataluña Caixa Inmobiliaria. That platform acquired 40,000 mortgages from the extinct Catalan entity for €4.123 billion in 2015. Since then, it has acquired those types of mortgage debt portfolios, with an investment that amounts to around €7 billion.

Meanwhile, Servihabitat belongs to the fund Texas Pacific Group, (TPG), which has held a 51% stake in the servicer since September 2013, when CaixaBank sold it that percentage, holding onto the remaining 49%. It manages assets worth around €50 billion. Altamira is owned by Santander (15%) and the fund Apollo (85%), which acquired its stake in November 2013. Its assets in Spain are also worth around €50 billion. Solvia, owned by Sabadell, manages assets linked to real estate worth more than €31 billion.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Pablo Martín Simón, Laura Salces Acebes & Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mount Street Takes Over the Management of WestLB’s NPLs in Spain

12 December 2017 – Expansión

The British firm also wants to negotiate agreements to manage the portfolios of Spanish banks and Sareb.

A new operator has arrived in the Spanish market for the management of debt in default or with a high risk of non-payment. Mount Street London Solutions has taken over a platform that manages the “toxic” portfolio of the former German entity WestLB and has whereby acquired an office in Madrid. Through this deal, the firm aspires to obtain new clients in Spain, including financial institutions and investment funds operating in the sector.

Mount Street was owned by the fund Greenfield Partners until February when its directors purchased the firm with support from the German bank Aareal Bank, which took over 20% of the share capital. In October, the loan manager took a leap in its business with the purchase of EAA Portfolio Advisors, an entity created in Germany to administer WestLB’s non-performing assets after the bank was rescued by the German Government in 2008. Its function is to try to recover those loans, restructure them, sell them on or foreclose the assets that secure them.

Of the €200 billion in problem loans that WestLB held, €22 billion remains, under the management of EAA. The portfolio includes loans, primarily to firms in the renewable energy sector, which WestLB granted in Spain before the crisis. By acquiring EAA, Mount Street has purchased its office in Madrid along with the 6 employees that manage its portfolio.

The objective of Mount Street is to use this foothold in Spain as a platform to grow towards new business areas, especially in the real estate debt segment. “The team that we have incorporated in Spain has been working for years to restructure debt in the infrastructure sector, in particular, in the solar energy segment, and we are now able to contribute our specialisation in the real estate area that we offer in the rest of Europe”, said Ravi Joseph (pictured above), Founding Partner of Mount Street, in an interview with Expansión.

The firm, which is headquartered in London, sees several opportunities for accessing the Spanish property market. On the one hand, he hopes to negotiate agreements with financial entities and/or with Sareb (…) to manage some of their portfolios of problem loans. Another option is to help those property developers struggling to make their repayments to allow them to “repurchase” their loans from the investment banks that acquired their debt from the banks back in the day. The final option is to collaborate with small investors that are still arriving in Spain interested in acquiring non-performing loans (…).

In Joseph’s opinion, the appetite of international investors to enter Spain is still very high despite the political crisis in Cataluña. “The major international investors are still very interested in Spain. Much more so than in Italy. Spain has entered a virtuous circle (…). The uncertainty in Cataluña may affect growth somewhat, but the overall trend will continue to be upward”.

After acquiring EAA, Mount Street now manages debt amounting to €48 billion in total.

Original story: Expansión (by Robert Casado)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Project Gold: Bankia Puts €180M Loan Portfolio Up For Sale

20 February 2017 – Expansión

Bankia, the fifth largest bank in Spain, has just put a €180 million doubtful debt portfolio up for sale. The package contains loans to property developers and is being marketed under the name Project Gold, according to market sources.

Specifically, the portfolio comprises loans granted to small and medium-sized companies in Spain, many of which are property developers.

Last year, the entity managed to close several operations of this kind for €455 million in total, according to its income statement. However, none of those deals featured in the top fifteen largest transactions of 2016 by volume.

Portfolio sales, along with debt recovery processes, have decreased Bankia’s doubtful debt balance by 12.5%, according to annual data. Over the last year, the group has reduced the perimeter of its foreclosed assets by 16.4%. The coverage ratio of its doubtful balances amounts to 55%, which is above average for the sector.

Bankia has a significantly lower exposure to property developer risk than the other large banks because it offloaded the majority of its problematic assets to Sareb, the bad bank, as did the other savings banks that were rescued using public money. Only 1% of Bankia’s business comes from that sector.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Norwegian Group Axactor Buys Geslico From Fortress

13 May 2016 – Expansión

On Wednesday, the US fund Fortress signed the sale of Geslico, the recovery firm of the former savings banks, to a new player in the Spanish market, the Norwegian group Axactor.

Through this agreement, Fortress has almost completely withdrawn from the financial sector, where it now only owns Lico Leasing. The opportunistic fund decided to backtrack because of the administrative obstacles that it came up against when it tried to take control of the savings’ banks financial company – 15 months. In recent months, it has also sold part of the stake that it held in Paratus, the former financing arm of General Motors, GMAC, to the British firm Cabot Financial.

The acquisition by Axactor represents the arrival of another Norwegian specialist firm in Spain. The financial crisis that the Scandinaivan countries experienced in the 1990s forced them to specialise in this type of business, something that they are now taking advantage of in the face of the accumulation of troubled banking assets in markets such as Spain.

Alongside Axactor, Lindorff has been one of the most active players in Spain in recent years. In fact, Axactor’s team in Spain originated in Lindorff, with executives such as Juan Manuel Gutiérrez Alcubilla (pictured above, right), the former Finance Director of Lindorff, now leading Axactor as the Country Manager.

Through the purchase of Fortress’ stake, Axactor España hopes to generate revenues of more than €40 million in 2016, compared with €10 million in 2015. The Norwegian group will employ a workforce of almost 500 people, more than twice the current number, across 9 operating centres. In addition, the operation will allow it to increase the volume of debt under management to €3,600 million. This investor has purchased portfolios from Oaktree – a Bankia portfolio – and York – from Ibercaja – in recent months. The advisors to this operation were N+1, on the side of Fortress and KPMG, on the side of the Norwegian group.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Z.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lindorff Buys Aktua From Centerbridge For c. €300M

21 March 2016 – El Confidencial

Aktua, the real estate services company created by the former Banesto, which was acquired by the opportunistic fund Centerbridge Partners in 2012, is about to change owners once again. The Norwegian company Lindorff has reached an agreement to complete the acquisition for almost €300 million, which will turn it into one of the largest landlords in Spain. The Scandinavian company has fought off competition from Apollo Capital Management, the toxic property management arm of Banco Santander, as well as the German firm Activum SG Capital Management.

According to several sources, Lindorff has won the auction led by Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Linklaters against those two opponents, and is now putting the finishing touches to the legal conditions so that it can close the operation. It has not been simple because, whilst Aktua was on the market, its parent company, Centerbridge, acquired the real estate arm of Ibercaja – on 2 February – which meant that it had to recalculate the numbers for the potential buyers.

Aktua manages around 42,000 properties worth almost €7,000 million; those assets will be added to those that Lindorff already manages in Spain. The Scandinavian company was one of the pioneers to invest in the real estate and recovery services sector when the crisis first began. In fact, in 2012, it bought Reintegra for €100 million, the subsidiary of Banco Santander dedicated to the recovery of doubtful debts, and in December 2014, it acquired Sabadell’s recovery arm, for which it paid €160 million. Along the way, it also acquired several non-performing debt portfolios, including several from the bank led by Ana Botín.

Currently, Lindorff España, which last year appointed Alejandro Zurbano as its CEO, employs more than 1,100 professionals and has a presence throughout the country, with offices in Madrid, Valladolid, A Coruña, Alicante, Barcelona, Granada, Jerez de la Frontera, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, San Sebastián and Valencia. The multi-national company from the North of Europe has almost 4,000 employees in total, located in its 11 countries of operation, including Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Russia and Germany.

Although the amount of some of its operations have not been made public, Lindorff has invested almost €1,000 million to become one of the largest landlords in the country. Its work involves managing homes and retail premises, owned by the various real estate companies that it has acquired, claiming the payment of unpaid loans from their owners and negotiating the debt to obtain a spread. Once the last details of the purchase have been finalised, Linforff will manage non-performing loans, homes, retail spaces and land owned by Banesto, Ibercaja, Banco Mare Nostrum (BMN), Santander and Sabadell.

The sale of Aktua was essential for the main overseas funds that have become the largest landlords in Spain, because it is a volume-based business that is currently still very atomised. Sources in the market expect to see a process of concentration in the sector, in which almost €10,000 million has been invested, mainly on the purchase of non-performing loan portfolios. Some are already leaving, such as Elliott, which recently sold its recovery management platform to Cabot, and Fortress, which has now put its main businesses in Spain up for sale: the financing company Lico Leasing and the loan management platform Paratus.

For Centerbridge, the sale of Aktua is going to generate a sizeable profit, given that it acquired the platform for around €100 million in 2012 and is now selling it for almost €300 million. The real estate platform of the opportunistic fund employs 400 people and generates a gross operating profit or EBITDA of around €50 million.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Agustín Marco)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cerberus Purchases Gescobro From Spanish Fund Miura

18 February 2015 – Expansión

Transaction / The US firm acquires the company that specialises in debt recovery, which has been controlled by the private equity firm Miura for five years.

Following its acquisition of Sotogrande, the US fund Cerberus is continuing to dominant transactions in Spain. Its latest target has been Gescobro, the debt recovery company, owned by the private equity firm Miura since 2010, which held more than 90% of its share capital, according to market sources.

The management team, which held a minority stake in the company, continue at the helm. Through this transaction (for which the consideration paid has not been disclosed), Cerberus strengthens its debt management capability, in particular after investing in bank debt in the Spanish market in recent months.

The US fund already owned Haya Real Estate (formerly Bankia Habitat), which, in addition to its real estate management services, also operates in the field of mortgages.

With the acquisition of Gescobro, Cerberus enhances its position in the debt recovery market, specifically in the consumer credit segment. Last year, Gescobro managed files with a value of €4,000 million. Miura first acquired shares in the company in 2010; until then it was owned by the founding family, the García-Godalls.

Gescobro employs nearly 300 professionals between its headquarters in Barcelona and its offices in Madrid. Heading up the company is Iheb Nafaa, the CEO, who is supported by Gemma García Godall, Head of Business Development and the daughter of the firm’s founders. The two executives were also shareholders of the group when Miura controlled the company and, according to market sources, both continue to hold a minority share.

The transaction, which was closed on Monday, is the second divestment made by the Spanish fund since it was established in 2008. The advisors to the transaction included PwC, on the side of Miura, and the law firm Ashurst, who worked with Cerberus.

Original story: Expansión (by Sergio Saiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake