Cerberus Wins Bid To Manage & Sell Bankia’s Expanded Real Estate Portfolio

5 March 2018 – La Información

Cerberus has fought off competition from Lindorff to become one of the new Bankia’s partners, responsible for managing and selling its portfolio of foreclosed assets, which now exceeds €5 billion. The group chaired by José Ignacio Goirigolzarri has opted to continue with its existing partner in the end, to the detriment of the partner that has been working with BMN since 2014, for reasons that may go beyond the mere economic bid offered by both, indicate reliable sources.

Bankia’s alliance with Cerberus dates back to 2013, when it acquired its real estate firm Habitat on which it built Haya Real Estate, the servicer, which is now finalising its debut on the stock market after having also been awarded contracts to manage the portfolios of BBVA, Liberbank, Cajamar and Sareb (…).

At that time, almost all of Spain’s financial institutions opted to divest their “servicers” in light of the need to accelerate the sale of their toxic assets and the large appetite of specialist funds to grow in size and contracts. BMN’s story is similar. In 2014, it sold its real estate asset company Inmare to Aktua for €40 million. Aktua was Banesto’s former real estate servicer company, which Lindorff acquired from Centerbridge Partners in a close battle with Apollo and Activum SG Capital Management in 2016.

The Norwegian fund, which is itself currently immersed in an integration process with Intrum Justitia, thus took over the management of the real estate assets of the banking group led by Caja Murcia, as well as of those transferred by BMN to Sareb. The entity now also works for Ibercaja and with certain portfolios from entities such as Santander.

Haya Real Estate and Lindorff’s contracts with their respective clients are similar because they both impose a decade-long period of exclusivity, forcing Bankia to review its position following the absorption of BMN, just like with other types of joint ventures. The bank is going to proceed first to break the contracts and indemnify each partner for a sum estimated to amount to €100 million, according to Expansión, and then it plans to close a new agreement with the winning party. Both partners may have submitted similar bids although it is understood that Aktua offered an exclusively commercial service whilst the agreement with Haya Real Estate included the absorption of the workforce.

The transfer of employees

The new Bankia Group’s property portfolio has a gross value of €5.1 billion, as at the end of 2017, compared with €3.5 billion registered a year earlier excluding BMN’s exposure. The entity has a cushion of provisions that covers 35.9% of its portfolio value in such a way that it could afford to dispose of the portfolio at 64.1% of its initial value without incurring losses. The bulk – 62% – are homes associated with foreclosed mortgages and another 16% are properties received for debt in construction or property development – 48% of that proportion corresponds to land -.

BFA’s subsidiary reduced its problematic assets by 9.9% YoY last year – excluding the incorporation of BMN’s exposure onto its balance sheet – thanks, above all, to sales amounting to €427 million (€5.55 million corresponded to gains) and a 15.3% reduction in doubtful risks.

With the integration of BMN, the bank is being forced to review and rethink all of the contracts where exclusive suppliers operate in both networks. It has already resolved one relating to life insurance, which will see it discontinue BMN’s relationship with Aviva – it will pay that firm €225 million by way of compensation – in favour of Mapfre, which was also victorious in 2016 when the bank came across another duplicate alliance, for the first time (with the same British insurance company, which was also a historical ally of Bancaja). It still needs to settle a similar agreement with Caser, and put the finishing touches to its deals with Lindorff and Cerberus.

Original story: La Información (by Eva Contreras)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Benson Elliot Buys Hotel Silken In Barcelona For €80M

7 October 2016 – Expansión

A major operation and better gains for Bank of America Merril Lynch in Barcelona. The US entity is finalising the sale of Hotel Silken Diagonal for €80 million to a group of investors led by the British fund Benson Elliot. Bank of America will generate capital gains of €50 million from the property in just one year, given that it took over the hotel in 2015 when it foreclosed the debt relating to the property, amounting to €27 million.

According to sources close to the operation, the sale has not been signed yet, although the vendor has entered into an exclusivity period with the purchaser group.

Bank of America Merril Lynch ended up with the mortgage loan following the crisis of the Urvasco group, the parent company of the Silken hotel chain, after it filed for bankruptcy.

The property has 240 rooms and a four-star rating. It is located in the 22@ district of Barcelona, next to the Torre Agbar, and it has a management contract with Silken. The operation has been advised by JLL, which declined to comment on the operation yesterday.

The amount (€80 million) that Benson Elliot has paid together with another investor group, whose name has not been revealed, has been described as exorbitant by several sources in the real estate sector, who point out that the building is located away from the city centre in Barcelona, in an area that suffered a lot at the beginning of the crisis.

Nevertheless, the same sources also indicate that the hotel moratorium applied in Barcelona last year by the mayoress Ada Colau, together with the strong investor appetite for assets in the Catalan capital and the shortage of buildings on the market, have driven up the price of the few properties that have come onto the market. Bank of America put this asset on the market a few months ago and several international investors submitted bids for it.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Slim Negotiates A Deal With Hispania To Take Control Of Realia

6 March 2015 – Expansión

ALLIANCE / The businessman is building bridges with the Socimi, which has an agreement in place with the group’s creditors to restructure its debt. Slim may transfer some assets or engage the management of the real estate company to his rival.

The takeover war being fought between Hispania Real and Carlos Slim’s real estate company Carso, for the control of Realia may end with the waving of a white flag. On Wednesday, the Mexican businessman announced his acquisition of a 24.953% stake in Realia’s share capital from Bankia and “in addition” that he would be launching a takeover bid for 100% of the company’s shares at a price of €0.58/share.

The businessman’s offer exceeded the one made by the Socimi in November for €0.49 per share, by 18%. That takeover bid is still pending approval by the CNMV.

In his favour, Slim’s offer does not only win on price. The Mexican businessman is also the largest shareholder in FCC, which in turn owns a 36.9% stake in Realia. After Slim joined the construction group, FCC announced in February that it would be suspending the sale of its stake.

Agreement

Nevertheless, Hispania still has an ace up its sleeve. The Socimi created by Azora’s managers, Fernando Gumuzio and Concha Osácar made an agreement with Fortress, King Street and Goldman Sachs before launching the takeover bid. The three funds have lent €793 million of the total debt (€1,097 million) held by Realia. Those loans, sold by Sareb, Santander and CaixaBank last year, are due to mature soon: on 30 June 2016. Moreover, when the funds agreed to purchase the debt, they also agreed with Realia that, in the event of a change in more than 30% of the shareholders, then the whole debt amount would have to be repaid “immediately”.

On 21 November, Hispania made an agreement with the creditors in which the funds agreed not to exercise their shares and not to demand the full repayment of the financing that would result from the application of the change of control clause. In exchange, Hispania purchased 50% of the receivables that each one of the funds possessed, at a discount of 21%. This partnership makes Slim’s assault on the real estate company more difficult, and so the Mexican has not wasted any time building bridges with his competitor.

The main obstacle facing Slim is that Hispania and the funds agreed an exclusivity period of seven months for the execution of the agreements, extendable up to ten months if a competing offer were presented. “During that exclusivity period, neither of the parties may initiate, encourage, lead, trigger, conduct or respond to any offer, proposal, contact, conversation, negotiation or approximation of any kind, with or from any third party, regarding the implementation of any operation that may be similar or incompatible with the execution of transfer of the loans resulting from the financing to Hispania Real”, says the agreement. This means that Slim and the funds may not make any agreement until 21 September without taking Hispania into account.

Against this background, the Mexican businessman has chosen to forge an alliance with his rival, to reduce this period. In exchange, according to close sources, Slim is offering the Socimi some capital, some assets to increase its own equity or the opportunity to participate in Realia as its manager. Inmobiliaria Carso, the vehicle that Slim wants to use to acquire Realia, does not have either the structure or the knowledge of the Spanish market held by Hispania’s managers, and therefore a deal between the two cannot be ruled out.

Consideration

The prior agreement with Hispania places the creditor funds in an advantageous situation in the context of the new offer. In the event that the Socimi does decide to raise the price of its takeover bid, Fortress, King Street and Goldman Sachs would receive €38.25 million more for 50% of their debt. If, on the other hand, the Socimi decides to withdraw from the process, the funds shall pay Hispania €5 million “provided that the rights of creditors’ loans have satisfied the nominal”.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz, D. Badía and C. Morán)

Translation: Carmel Drake