Tag: Josep Oliu

Project Makalu: Sabadell Puts €2.5bn Portfolio Up For Sale

21 March 2018 – Vozpópuli

Banco Sabadell is stepping on the accelerator to complete its balance sheet clean up as soon as possible. After months of negotiations with the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD), the Catalan entity has decided to place on the market its first large portfolio proceeding from CAM’s Asset Protection Scheme (EPA). In this way, it has distributed information to investors about Project Makalu, comprising €2.5 billion in assets from the former Alicante-based savings bank, according to financial sources consulted by Vozpópuli.

This operation comprises foreclosed assets and unpaid loans from companies and individuals covered by the EPA. It follows another portfolio that has been on the market for a few days, Project Galerna, comprising €900 million in non-performing loans.

KPMG is advising Sabadell on both operations, which together comprise assets and loans worth €3.4 billion.

The group chaired by Josep Oliu has been negotiating with the FGD for months to try to kick-start these operations. The aim is that they will be followed by two more portfolios taking the total value of the assets for sale to €12 billion and whereby reset the entity’s real estate calculator. The issue is not simple because the sale of these loans may generate a hole for the Fund that would impact the State deficit.

Strategic plan

The Catalan entity announced at the recent launch of its strategic plan in London that it maintains the objective of reducing its exposure to problem assets at a rate of €2 billion per year. With the sale of Project Makalu alone it would more than exceed that goal.

The bank held €15.2 billion in problem assets at the end of 2017, but the forecasts indicate that that figure will fall below €9 billion by 2020: €4 billion in doubtful loans and €5 billion in foreclosed assets. And that is without taking into account the divestments that are now being worked on with the FGD.

Project Makalu is the fourth largest portfolio of problem assets ever to be put up for sale by a Spanish bank, behind only Popular’s Project Quasar, amounting to €30 billion, purchased by Blackstone; BBVA’s Project Marina, amounting to €13 billion, acquired by Cerberus; and Project Hercules, amounting to €6.4 billion in mortgages from Catalunya Banc, which was bought by Blackstone.

Meanwhile, Project Galerna is similar to Project Gregal, which Sabadell sold less than a year ago to three funds: Grove, D. E. Shaw and Lindorff. That portfolio comprised loans linked to consumers, without real estate guarantees, which had already been fully written off, and so all of the proceeds from the sale were recorded directly as gains.

Precedents

Besides Gregal, Sabadell closed two other major operations last year: Normandy, comprising €950 million in property developer loans, which was acquired by Oaktree, and which also proceeded from CAM’s EPA; and Voyager, comprising €800 million, which was purchased by the largest pension fund in Canada.

The latest operation launched by Sabadell joins others recently placed on the market by Sareb, BBVA, Cajamar and Kutxabank.

Original story: Vozpópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Considers Selling €1.8 bn Portfolio Whilst it Negotiates with FGD

1 February 2018 – Voz Pópuli

Banco Sabadell is preparing an artillery of divestments over the coming months. The entity chaired by Josep Oliu (pictured above) has been sounding out the market for several weeks now regarding the launch of what would be its largest sale of problem assets to date, worth €1.8 billion, according to financial sources consulted by Vozpópuli.

This operation, which still needs to be approved by the bank’s Board of Directors, would be the precursor to a mega-operation amounting to €12 billion that the entity is considering launching over the next few months, according to Expansión. Sabadell has three mandates granted to launch these divestments in 2018 with Deloitte, KPMG and Alantra.

Nevertheless, these sales have been held up by the Management Committee of the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD). The €12 billion that Sabadell wants to sell are precisely those covered by the Asset Protection Scheme (EPA) granted by the semi-public fund during the sale of CAM.

The Management Committee, whose members include bankers from some of Sabadell’s competitor firms, is questioning the sale of the €12 billion because of the hole it would cause in its own accounts. The FGD held equity funds of €1.6 billion at the end of 2016. The same thing is happening with BBVA. In that case, the FGD is considering whether to approve the accelerated sale of assets proceeding from Unnim’s EPA.

Two positions

This story is about two very different positions. On the one hand, Sabadell and BBVA want to bulk sell all of the problem assets that they inherited from the purchases of CAM and Unnim, respectively, in one go. In terms of the danger posed by the end of the EPA, they know that, like happened to Liberbank, when the guarantees end, the unsold assets will affect their capital ratios, by raising the denominator (APRs).

Meanwhile, the FGD is studying the impact that these operations may have and whether the contracts signed at the time allow such accelerated divestments.

Sabadell was one of the most active entities in the sale of problem portfolios last year, with the sale of Project Normandy to Oaktree and Project Voyager to the largest pension fund in Canada.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Reports €2,000M In Additional Revenues From Sale Of 2 Portfolios

26 July 2017 – Voz Pópuli

Banco Sabadell is improving its financial figures. The entity chaired by Josep Oliu has closed several divestments over the last few months that will allow it to report extra revenues of €2,000 million this year.

Through this, it wants to avoid the market from drawing comparisons between it and Popular, as happened with Liberbank before the prohibition against trading short positions was introduced. After a few nervous days for the whole sector, Sabadell’s share price rose by more than 5%, following the express rescue of Popular, and its bearish positions decreased.

The divestments have accelerated in recent weeks, with the sale of two portfolios of doubtful debts and of a reinsurance agreement with Swiss Re, as a result of which it has registered proceeds of almost €700 million.

In terms of its portfolios, Sabadell has signed the transfer of two in the last few days. On the one hand, it has almost completed the sale of Project Gregal, with a volume of €800 million, to three funds. That operation was divided into three sub-portfolios: one containing real estate loans to SMEs (€200 million), which was acquired by D. E. Shaw; another containing non-performing loans to individuals, which has been awarded to Lindorff; and another containing non-performing loans to SMEs, which has yet to be sold and for which Cabot, Intrum and PRA are currently competing, according to financial sources. Market sources estimate that Sabadell will receive between €100 million and €150 million for that operation.

Strategic objectives

In addition to Project Gregal, Sabadell has also signed the sale of €950 million in loans to Oaktree, as part of Project Normandy. That operation has been underway for almost a year but has not been signed until now due to (disagreements regarding) the small print. The US fund has paid around €300 million for that portfolio of loans linked to real estate developments.

With these two operations, Sabadell is pushing ahead with its goal to reduce its balance of problematic assets at a rate of €2,000 million per year, per its announcement during the latest update to its strategic plan.

The sale of its subsidiary in the United States will be more important for its capital (which currently stands at 12%), which was announced in March for a value of $1,025 million, with profits of €450 million. That operation is pending approval from the US administrative authorities, which could be granted this quarter.

The same can be said of the reinsurance of a portfolio of individual life-risk insurance, for which Swiss Re has paid €683 million, resulting in net revenues of €250 million for Sabadell.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Considers Listing HI Partners As A Socimi

29 May 2017 – Eje Prime

A new IPO may be on the horizon for the real estate arm of one of the large Spanish banks. Banco Sabadell is analysing the option of debuting its subsidiary HI Partners, through which it owns a portfolio of 31 hotels across Spain, on the stock market as a Socimi.

According to Expansión, the bank has engaged the investment banks Citi, JP Morgan and Credit Suisse to study the feasibility of the placement, whose final green light will depend on the entity’s President, Josep Oliu. The eventual debut on the stock market could take place after the summer.

Led by Alejandro Hernández-Puértolas and chaired by Enric Rovira, HI Partners was founded in 2015 by Sabadell to enable the Catalan entity to concentrate the ownership of the real estate assets linked to the tourist sector that it obtained as a result of foreclosures, into a single company. Through two companies, HI Partners Value Added and HI Partners Gestión Activa, the firm now owns 31 hotels with more than 3,500 rooms, which are managed by various hotel operators.

The group’s assets include establishments in Tenerife (the Hotel Jardín Tropical), Marbella (Incosol), Sitges (Terramar), Valencia (Acteon), Málaga (an establishment run by the hotel chain Silken) and Mallorca (the Hilton Sa Torre). In addition, HI Partners manages €800 million of the bank’s hotel debt.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hotel Financing: Sabadell’s Market Share Rises To 31%

26 January 2017 – Expansión

Sabadell was the only Spanish bank to have its own stand at Fitur. The entity’s decision to physically attend the tourism sector’s major annual meeting reflects its desire to consolidate its position as the key player in this business segment, which is so strategic for the Spanish economy.

Two years ago, the bank chaired by Josep Oliu decided to launch Sabadell Negocio Turístico, a specialist division that has allowed it to secure a market share of 31% and increase the volume of financing it has granted to the sector to €4,500 million.

Over the last two years, the granting of loans to tourism companies has grown by €1,500 million, according to José María Martín Rigueiro, Director General of this business unit.

According to the executive, 90% of this volume is used to finance hotel purchases and the remaining 10% corresponds to loans used for renovation projects and energy efficiency improvement plans in tourist establishments. Nevertheless, in terms of the number of transactions, the proportion is inverse, in other words, 90% of the loans (by number) are granted for renovations and 10% for acquisitions.

More than 13,500 clients

“We have positioned ourselves as a key player in the whole sector, given that we are the only bank to offer a specific value proposition for financing tourist services and products. Moreover, it is suitable for large hotel chains, as well as the smallest of rural hotels”, said Martín Rigueiro.

Thanks to its specialist agents, Banco Sabadell is growing its client portfolio by 7% per annum and is now collaborating with 13,500 companies, including hotel groups, campsites, travel agents and tour operators. Moreover, its net investment balance is increasing at an annual rate of more than 10% and the volume of client resources managed is growing by more than 25% each year. The objective for this year is to grow its client portfolio by 8% and to increase its credit investment by 10%.

“At Fitur, we were breathing an environment of maximum optimism; the hotel sector is expected to grow this year, in terms of both occupancy rates, as well as average room rates”, explained the Director of Sabadell Negocio Turístico.

The banker also attested to the strong interest from international funds keen to invest in hotel assets in Spain. Investors are managing returns of between 9% and 18%, said Martín Rigueiro. (…). The greatest interest is being seen in the vacation hotel segment, as well as in the urban segment, in major capital cities.

Financing for hotel purchases is being provided across the board: to investment funds, Spanish family offices, individual investors, as well as hotel chains. 90% of the sectors largest players are clients of Banco Sabadell, and the bank now also has a market share of 45% in the SME tourism segment.

According to Sabadell, the default rate of new loans granted to hotels since the crisis is very low, given that operations are no longer being leveraged on the basis of the value of the underlying real estate assets, but rather on the basis of the business plans and income statements of the establishments. (…).

In parallel to this specialist business unit, Sabadell also operates in the hotel sector through HI Partners, a hotel investment and management company.

Original story: Expansión (by Sergi Saborit)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Converts Solvia Into A RE Franchise

14 October 2016 – Cinco Días

Banco Sabadell is very clear about its future, it wants to take advantage of the boom in the real estate sector to harness the stock of foreclosed assets that it still holds on its balance sheet, which it largely inherited from CAM.

To date, the bank chaired by Josep Oliu has decided to hold onto Solvia, the platform that owns all of its foreclosed assets. Initially, it planned to list it on the stock market, but it quickly ruled out that option. It also studied several offers to sell a majority stake in its real estate platform to large investment funds, like other players in the sector did, including Santander with Altamira and Popular with Aliseda, amongst others. But, it also decided against that idea after it saw demand for real estate grow in recent years.

Since 2013, when the market for the sale of properties became active once again, the heads of Solvia have seen that the transactions that have grown by the most, albeit timidly, are those between individuals. And as such, Sabadell has decided to offer its services to third parties, on both the buy side and sell side. In this way, Solvia “is beginning a new phase in which it is placing its strategic focus on offering its services not only to those interested to buy a home, as it has done to date, but now also to individuals wishing to sell their homes”, explained the bank.

To this end, it is going to restructure its commercial network, by turning Solvia into a franchiser. It will thereby create a network of franchisees with physical branches across Spain. Each franchisee will have the right to sell assets owned by Solvia’s current clients (Sabadell, Sareb and various funds) and by individuals whose homes are located in their respective area. Solvia will also have its own network which, for the time being, will comprise two offices, one in Sevilla and one in Alicante. The idea is that by the end of the year, Solvia will have 12 of its own offices and 24 franchised branches. It will also be able to sell properties through the bank’s branch network. In this way, Sabadell will compete directly with estate agents such as Tecnocasa and Redpiso, for example.

Sources at the real estate agents consulted are certain that other banks will follow Sabadell’s lead. Solvia’s franchisee offer is open to both the network of approved real estate agents (Apis), as well as to other professionals in the sector, such as entrepreneurs and investors. The idea is that Sabadell will reserve a certain number of locations for young people (recent graduates with excellent academic records) who want to start a business and learn on the job.

Since 2012, Solvia has been one of the firms that has sold the most properties in Spain. Its sales have exceeded €2,500 million year after year on a recurring basis, say sources at the bank. An important proportion of these transactions involve the sale of homes and as such, the project to become a real estate agent has been born. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (Ángeles Gonzalo Alconada)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Project Traveler: Sabadell Puts A €500M RE Portfolio Up For Sale

14 October 2016 – Voz Pópuli

Banco Sabadell has taken the lead in the Spanish banking sector once again with the sale of its toxic assets. Over the last few days, the Catalan entity has distributed a teaser (information brochure for investors) detailing a new real estate operation: Project Traveler. The portfolio contains 30 hotels, 30 work in progress real estate developments and other debts to SMEs, according to financial sources.

The operation involves collateral worth €500 million and it is already generating a lot of interest amongst international funds.

With this latest deal, Sabadell now has €1,500 million up for sale, given that straight after the summer, it put Project Normandy on the market, through which it wants to sell doubtful debt amounting to €1,000 million. Following the receipt of non-binding offers, that operation has recently entered its final phase, which will last for around a month.

The entity chaired by Josep Oliu has been one of the most active in recent years in terms of selling problem assets. Sabadell wants to reduce the real estate portfolio that it mainly inherited from the acquisitions that it made during the crisis in Spain, such as CAM, Caixa Penedès and Banco Guizpuzcoano, as quickly as possible.

According to the most recently published figures, as at June 2016, the bank held €19,900 million in problem assets, having reduced that balance by €6,000 million over the last two years. Along with portfolio sales, one of the key elements of the bank’s strategy is the work being performed by its real estate arm Solvia. That entity sells homes through the bank’s network and agents, and is responsible for managing overdue debt.

Project Traveler has attracted attention in the market because it is the second portfolio containing hotels to come onto the market in 2016, after Project Sun, being sold by CaixaBank, which is in the very final stages of negotiation.

Other operations

After the short break at the end of July due to the impact of Brexit on the market, the sale of portfolios has resumed once again in recent weeks. The first operation involved Abanca, which sold €300 million in unpaid mortgages to KKR; and then came Sareb’s return to the market – it is offering investors portfolios worth more than €1,000 million, after a year without any operations following the introduction of the Bank of Spain’s accounting circular.

For the large opportunistic funds, such as Cerberus, Blackstone, Apollo, Bain Capital – formerly Sankaty – and TPG, and the large investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, these operations represent one of the best ways of making money in Spain at the moment. (…).

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell & Bankia Lead Reductions In Default Rates

17 May 2016 – Expansión

Banco Sabadell and Bankia are the entities that have reduced their default rates by the most in the last year, by 4.18 points and 2.12 points, respectively, according to Europa Press. The entity chaired by Josep Oliu recorded a default rate of 7.5% during the first quarter of the year, which represents a decrease of 4.18 points. Most of that decrease came as the result of the acquisition of the British bank TSB, which has lower default rates than Sabadell.

Excluding the effect of that acquisition, Sabadell reduced its default rate by 2.23 points over the last 12 months (between March 2015 and March 2016) to 9.45%.

It was followed by Bankia, which has decreased its doubtful debt ratio by 2.12 points to 10.5%, in a proportion that is almost identical to CaixaBank, which reduced its default rate to 7.6%, down by 2.11 points.

Nevertheless, the entity with the best ratio in the sector is Bankinter (3.95%). The behaviour of the other large entities has been more modest, with decreases of less than one point in the last year. Santander reduced its rate by 0.89 points to 6.36%; BBVA’s rate rose by half a point from 5.9% to 6.4%, penalised by its acquisition of CatalunyaBanc. Popular barely managed to reduce its default rate by 0.64 points and continues to record the highest ratio in the large bank sector, with 12.68%.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

50% Of Banco Sabadell’s New Mortgages Are Fixed Rate

1 April 2016 – Expansión

Strategic commitment / The entity, which held its General Shareholders’ Meeting yesterday, considers that we are facing “an historic opportunity” for clients to protect their mortgage contracts.

Banco Sabadell’s message was convincing on Wednesday, when it explained to Spanish customers that they are facing an “historic opportunity” to shield the interest rates on their mortgages for at least 20 years by taking out fixed-rate mortgages. That was the message from both the Chairman and CEO of the entity, Josep Oliu and Jaume Guardiola (pictured above), respectively, at a press conference ahead of yesterday’s General Shareholders’ Meeting.

Guardiola announced that more than 50% of Sabadell’s new mortgage loans are now being taken out with a fixed interest rate, a trend that he believes will continue to increase, given that Euribor is at historic lows and therefore, has significant potential to increase and little margin to decrease. The executive said that the bank recommends all of its clients to take out this type of mortgage and also advises holders of variable contracts to move across to the new product, even if their spreads are low. (…).

Sabadell has been one of the Spanish banks that has most heavily backed this product, and it says that there is still a reduced supply in the market. The entity is currently offering mortgages with fixed interest rates of 2.70%, 2.50% and 2.15%, depending on whether its clients take out their mortgages for a 30 year, 20 year or 10 year term, respectively. Meanwhile, BBVA is offering 2.25% rate over 20 years and 2.75% over 30 years; and Bankinter is offering 2.10% over 15 years and 2.50% over 20 years. (…).

Dividend of €0.07

Sabadell was also due to submit to its shareholders the approval of the distribution of a dividend amounting to €0.07, which would represent a pay out of 53% and a yield of 4.3% based on the year end share price at 31 December 2015. (…).

In 2015, Sabadell made a profit of €708 million, up by 90.6%. The General Shareholders’ Meeting was also expected to approve a long-term bonus linked to the evolution of its share price until 2019 to incentivise 482 directors.

Original story: Expansión (by S. Saborit)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sankaty Buys CAM’s RE Companies From Sabadell

4 December 2015 – Expansión

The fund Sankaty is finalising the purchase of a large package of real estate subsidiaries from Banco Sabadell, which the entity inherited from CAM. The US investor, which is itself a subsidiary of Bain Capital, has won a competitive auction held as part of Project Chloe, which will be signed before the end of the year, according to market sources.

The operation includes stakes in the companies’ shares, as well as debt, together worth €800 million. According to various sources, the sales price will range between €200 million and €250 million, which represents a discount over the nominal value of around 30%.

By purchasing the companies’ shares and debt, the fund will exert direct control over their real estate assets: land, work-in-progress property developments and finished properties.

This is Sankaty’s second major operation in Spain in 2015. In May, the fund acquired 40 large real estate loans from Bankia, worth €500 million.

Like many other overseas investors, Sankaty is committing itself to the acquisition of land and work-in-progress property developments in the hope of benefitting from the recovery of the Spanish economy, with an improvement that is already taking shape in the real estate market. These funds are joining forces with local property developers and, by purchasing at deep discounts, are hoping to obtain returns on their investments of up to 20%.

For Project Chloe, Sankaty will delegate the management of the assets to Altamira Inmuebles, the management platform owned by Apollo (85%) and Santander (15%), which has advised the fund during the process.

For Sabadell, this divestment is the latest in a series of similar deals undertaken in recent months, such as Project Cadi, which involved the transfer of €240 million of property developer loans to the US giant Pimco and the platform Finsolutia. In addition, it sold a portfolio of written-off receivables worth €800 million to the Malaysian fund Aiqon and it is negotiating the transfer of 3,000 rental homes, as part of Project Empire.

Exposure to real estate

Just like the rest of the Spanish financial sector, Sabadell is trying to reduce its exposure to real estate by combining the sale of homes through its network – its subsidiary Solvia is responsible for this – with the sale of portfolios to large international funds.

The bank, led by Josep Oliu, has one of the highest degrees of exposure to the real estate sector, due, in large part, to its purchase of CAM in 2011, although that was partially covered by an asset protection scheme (un ‘esquema de protección de activos’ or EPA) of up to €14,000 million. The entity has been working for several quarters now to reduce its volume of problem assets, which amounted to €22,350 million in September, and in recent months it has managed to stabilise its balance of foreclosed assets at €9,200 million, i.e. it has reached the point where the amount of (newly foreclosed) properties being incorporated onto its balance sheet is lower than the amount (of previously foreclosed properties) it is selling.

As the entity explained when it presented its results for the third quarter, it sold 7,654 foreclosed assets between January and September 2015, which represented an increase of 6% compared with the same period in 2014, and it achieved this even though it offered lower discounts on those properties compared with prior year.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake