BofA In Final Talks To Buy Hotel Loans From Bankia

27 May 2015 – Bloomberg

Bank of America Corp. is in final talks to buy loans with a nominal value of c. €400 million ($436 million) from Bankia SA, backed by hotels in Spain, said two sources close to the transaction.The loan package, called Castle, will likely be sold for less than the nominal value of the borrowings, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the information is not public. They declined to elaborate on the size of the discount.

A spokesman for Bankia, Spain’s fourth-largest bank, declined to comment. An external spokeswoman for Bank of America in Madrid was not immediately able to comment.

Investors are targeting hotels in Spain as the economy recovers and the euro’s slide against a basket of currencies that include the pound encourages more foreigners to visit the country. A record 65 million tourists came to Spain last year, with the largest share, 15 million, coming from the U.K. In the first two months of 2015, spending by visitors rose an annual 8 percent to €6.6 billion.

European banks and asset managers plan to sell or restructure €70 billion of riskier real estate as they try to clean up their balance sheets, Cushman & Wakefield Inc. said in an April report. The region’s lenders, asset managers and bad banks such as Spain’s Sareb sold €12 billion of loans tied to property during the first three months of the year, Cushman & Wakefield estimates.

Original story: Bloomberg (by Sharon R Smyth)

Edited by: Carmel Drake