Pressure from the ECB Forces Spain’s Banks to Market €40bn in Problem Real Estate

19 June 2018 – El Mundo

The extension of zero interest rates until “at least” next summer, as announced by the European Central Bank, has led Spain’s financial institutions to conclude that they can wait no longer for an improvement in economic conditions to divest their delinquent loans. At the moment, the main Spanish banks have problem assets worth more than €40 billion up for sale in the wholesale market.

The buyers in this market are large investment funds, which value the assets at prices below their nominal values. For the banks, this difference means, on the one hand, that they definitively loose 100% of the investment that they made and, on the other hand, that they can release the provisions for at least half of those losses. The ECB does not want the entities to speculate with these assets on their balance sheets and for that reason, it is forcing their sale.

In this way, last week, Cajamar liquidated its Galeon Project comprising €308 million in debt and yesterday, it was BBVA who divested another portfolio, called Sintra, comprising €1 billion in property developer loans for finished homes in Andalucía, Madrid, Valencia and Cataluña.

The CEO of BBVA, Carlos Torres, said that with this operation, he considers the chapter of accumulated delinquent debt on its balance sheet as a result of the real estate bubble to be “closed”. Since December 2016, the entity has cut its gross exposure to the real estate sector by approximately €20 billion.

Another entity that has placed portfolios of loans and foreclosed properties on the market is Liberbank, with a €250 million portfolio of foreclosed properties, which it has eloquently baptised Bolt. Other entities that are close to signing agreements include Banco Santander, with €500 million in debt on the verge of being placed and another €400 million on the market, and Banco Sabadell, one of the most active entities in the sale of doubtful assets this year, which is finalising the sale of €900 million in defaulted loans.

The bank headquartered in Alicante has two other large portfolios up for sale, although in that case they are foreclosed properties with a combined value of €8 billion, which proceed from both its own activity, as well as from the activity it took over following the purchase of Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo (CAM). If the group chaired by Josep Oliú closes the sale of all of these portfolios, it will have reduced its exposure amounting to more than €14 billion to less than €5 billion.

In the market for the large funds that purchase these assets, there are also offers from CaixaBank (€800 million in defaulted loans in a portfolio called Agora) and Bankia, which is selling €650 million in doubtful loans and preparing another one worth €1 billion.

The largest operation of all is by far the one involving Sareb, called Alfa, which involves placing on the market assets with a nominal value of €30 billion. The public-private company is sounding out the definitive price that the funds would be willing to pay before it decides whether to keep it up for sale.

Original story: El Mundo (by César Urrutia)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s Banks Sold Toxic Assets Worth €50.8bn to Funds in 2017

23 April 2018 – La Vanguardia

Last year, Spain led the sale of defaulted mortgage portfolios in Europe, with the sale of loans with a nominal value of €50.758 billion (of the €104.0 billion that were sold in Europe in total), according to a study on problematic real estate debt compiled by the consultancy firm Evercore. In 2017, Santander, with the sale of Popular’s property to Blackstone for €30 billion, and BBVA, with the sale of a portfolio worth €13 billion to Cerberus, were ranked amongst the top five vendors in Europe. “It is likely that we will be leaders in the sale of foreclosed properties and defaulted mortgages again this year and next”, says Íñigo Laspiur, Director of Corporate Finance at the consultancy firm CBRE. “At the moment, portfolios worth more than €8 billion are up for sale in the market”.

During the first few years of the financial crisis, it was entities in Ireland and the United Kingdom that led the sale of foreclosed real estate assets in Europe, but now the Spanish and Italian banks have taken over the baton (the latter led the ranking for the first quarter of this year). “Regulation by the ECB, which has caused provisions to soar, and above all, accounting guidelines, which have forced banks to increase their capital requirements, are accelerating the sales of toxic assets”, said Laspiur. Moreover, these sales are being boosted by the recovery of the real estate market and by the high level of provisions that the banks have now recognised. “Most sales by the banking entities these days make money, or at least, don’t generate losses”.

Laspiur explains how this means that the funds are accepting higher prices for toxic Spanish property: whilst in 2013, when Sareb began its first block sales, they were demanding returns of 15% per annum to buy assets, now the yields have decreased to just 8% when they are purchasing mortgage loans backed by high-quality properties.

Given their large size, the sales of asset portfolios are in the hands of just a few entities. “Only Blackstone, Cerberus, Apollo and Lone Star are bidding for portfolios worth more than €5 billion, whilst firms such as Bain Capital, Oaktree and Deutsche Bank are also very active in smaller operations”, said Laspiur. This lack of competition allows the funds to buy properties at prices well below market rates. “It is not only a question of size” – he adds. “The funds assume the risk of managing the debt (by negotiating with the debtor or in court) to take ownership of the property. It is a sophisticated process that appeals to few companies”. Nevertheless, for the financial institutions, “the sale of foreclosed assets and defaulted loans in large batches allows them to accelerate their cleanups and free up resources because selling them one by one would take years”.

Laspiur says that 2017 marked a turning point in the strategy of the banks to divest property. “Before, they were undertaking small operations. For example, Sareb, the most active entity, has completed more than 30 sales, followed by Sabadell, CaixaBank and Bankia. Nevertheless, last year, Santander and BBVA both created vehicles (companies) to which they transferred their bad assets, and then they sold them, but they retained a minority stake in each case, which allowed them to deconsolidate the assets but hold onto some of the ownership rights in order to benefit from the price rises being seen in the real estate sector”, said Laspiur. “It is a very good formula, and I think we are going to see more operations of a similar ilk this year”. In his opinion, Sareb, CaixaBank and Sabadell are going to be the entities that will lead property sales this year.

Together, the financial institutions in the south of Europe now account for the bulk of the foreclosed properties and defaulted loans in Europe, according to data from the consultancy firm Evercore, which forecasts that operations worth around €80 billion will be closed this year, with Spain leading the ranking once again (at the moment, it accounts for 78% of the portfolios up for sale in Europe, according to the consultancy firm) (…).

Sareb, the European bad asset leader

The Spanish bad bank or Sareb is the largest owner of toxic assets in Europe, according to Evercore, with foreclosed assets amounting to €75 billion, ahead of the bad bank of Ireland (which has €27 billion) and the UK (€20 billion). The hardest hit banks are Italian (Intesa San Paolo, Unicredito, Atlante Fund and Monte dei Paschi) and Greek (Pireus and Alpha) (…).

Original story: La Vanguardia (by Rosa Salvador)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Asur’s Two Hotels Go Up for Auction for €70M

30 November 2017 – ABC

The judge of Mercantile Court number 2 in Sevilla, Pedro Márquez, has approved the liquidation plan for the company Ámbito Sur Hoteles (Asur), which includes the direct sale, by auction, of the two production units associated with the four-star hotels that the company owns in La Línea de la Concepción (Cádiz) and Isla Antilla (Huelva). Both are operated by the chain Ohtels. Asur, which also owns land in Manilva as well as 81 tourist apartments in La Línea, filed for liquidation after accumulating debt of €90 million, most of which corresponded to loans from Banco Popular (now Santander), Cajasur, Sabadell and Sareb (the so-called bad bank).

The Hotel Asur Campo de Gibraltar and its adjacent car park are worth €21 million, although the debt associated with that production unit amounts to €20.7 million, mostly loaned from Cajasur. Meanwhile, Hotel Asur Islantilla Suites & Spa has an asking price of €48.7 million and that is offset by loans amounting to €41.5 million, of which €38 million was initially granted by Banco Popular (now Santander). That hotel also houses a conference centre.

Although several creditor banks made a request for the mortgage debt over the hotels to be foreclosed, the judge from the Mercantile Court has ruled for them to be sold as separate production units, relegating the mortgage foreclosure to a subsequent time if the auction is abandoned (…).

The bankruptcy administrator, in the hands of the law firm Maio Martínez Escribano, will receive offers for the hotels and the two plots of land in Manilva until 16 December. If by then it has not received any offers for more than 75% of the real value of the estates, then the period for the submission of offers will be extended by one month, to 16 January.

If an offer is received for less than 75% of the real value of the hotels, the main creditors (Cajasur in the case of the hotel in Campo de Gibraltar and Santander in the case of the hotel in Islantilla) will have to approve the operation. The bankruptcy administrator will have the power to choose the most favourable offer without having to obtain legal authorisation for the sale.

In the event that the two hotels are not sold directly through this first auction, the sale will be undertaken through a specialist entity, such as a real estate consultancy firm, which will be granted a five-month period to that end. If that sales option also fails, a “dación en pago” of the properties will be carried out. Only in the event that the hotels cannot be sold in that way either will the properties be auctioned off individually and not as production units.

The history of Asur

The company Asur was created in 2010 by the Basque group Bruesa Construcción and the Nazarene real estate company Baremos Área Inversiones (…).

Original story: ABC (by M. J. Pereira)

Translation: Carmel Drake