Tag: Liberbank

Spain’s Banks Prepare for a Mass Sale of Refinanced Mortgages Ahead of a European Regulatory Change

14 January 2020 – Expansión

Spain’s large banks are preparing for the mass sale of refinanced mortgage portfolios to opportunistic investment funds over the course of this year, ahead of a European regulatory change that will come into effect from January 2021. The new rules will require most refinanced debt to be classified as non-performing loans, which will impose more onerous capital requirements on the entities holding those assets.

Refinanced mortgages are those whose borrowers are currently up to date with their repayments but whose terms (economic conditions or duration) have been adjusted to avoid defaulted payments.

In the year to September 2019, Spain’s eight listed banks (Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Bankia, Sabadell, Bankinter, Unicaja and Liberbank) removed problem loans amounting to almost €37 million from their balance sheets. No detailed figures are compiled about refinanced mortgages, but sources in the sector estimate that a new market worth thousands of millions of euros could be generated as a result of the upcoming legislative change.

According to the new criteria to be introduced by the European Central Bank, refinanced loans will be classified as non-performing if the associated income generated by them falls by more than 1% as a result of the new terms of the loan. With such a strict threshold, almost all such loans will, therefore, be classified as non-performing.

In this context, a new market is expected to emerge whereby the banks try to divest portfolios of refinanced mortgages that are still considered healthy, but at lower prices.

The likely winners will be opportunistic funds, such as Cerberus, Blackstone and Lone Star, which typically buy doubtful assets with average discounts of 70%, and go on to generate double-digit returns through a combination of synergies and economies of scale.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Sampedro)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

The Pace of NPL Sales Falters in Spain

6 December 2019 – Spanish banks have reduced their pace of sales of NPLs this year, as CaixaBank, Sabadell, Bankia, Bankinter, Unicaja and Liberbank unloaded a total of just 4.9 billion euros in the first nine months of 2019. Those financial institutions wrapped up the quarter with €35.006 billion of such assets on their books, 12% less than at the beginning of the year. In contrast, Spain’s banks in sold off €90 billion in non-performing loans and REOs in 2018.

Standard & Poor’s, on the other hand, published a report in February estimating that Spain’s banks should rid themselves of €30 billion in NPLS between 2019 and 2020. That figure would have lowered their collective NPL ratio to below 4% compared to 7% at the time. Both S&P and Spain’s central bank also argued that the banks needed to increase the pace of sales to prepare for a potential slowdown in the economy.

Original Story: El Economista – Eva Díaz

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

 

Unicaja Negotiates Sale of 3,700 Refinanced Mortgages Worth €250M

24 April 2019 – El Confidencial

Unicaja Banco could become one of the first entities in Spain to sell refinanced mortgages whose borrowers are now up to date with their payments.

The Málaga-based entity has engaged EY to coordinate the sale of 3,700 doubtful loans worth €250 million. The mortgages went unpaid during the crisis and were all refinanced, such that the borrowers are now up to date on their payments.

To date, barely any Spanish entities have tried to sell assets of this kind. But pressure from the ECB to improve returns is forcing Unicaja to give it a shot. The mortgages are still classified as doubtful, since the Bank of Spain establishes that a borrower has to pay 12 monthly instalments and reduce some of the capital for a loan to be considered normal.

The sale of the mortgages by Unicaja has been called Project Biznaga and forms part of a larger asset divestment process being undertaken by the entity, worth around €1 billion. The sale is generating a lot of interest amongst international investors and is going ahead in parallel to the bank’s merger negotiations with Liberbank, which are in their final stages.

Unicaja has one of the lowest exposures to problem assets in the Spanish financial sector and the highest levels of coverage. According to the latest official figures, as at December 2018, it had €3.6 billion of foreclosed and doubtful assets and a coverage ratio of 57%.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Unicaja Puts NPLs Worth €1bn+ Up for Sale Ahead of Merger with Liberbank

8 April 2019 – El Mundo

Unicaja has placed non-performing loans and assets worth more than €1 billion up for sale ahead of its merger with Liberbank, which was launched at the beginning of last year and whose completion is scheduled for the autumn.

The Málaga-based entity, which started 2019 with €3.6 billion in non-performing assets (NPAs) on its balance sheet, wants to clean up 30% of that amount over the next six months.

Meanwhile, Liberbank has carried out several operations in recent years to substantially reduce its volume of NPAs, but still wants to cut the figure of €3.2 billion as at December 2018 by half.

Both entities have actually been in the process of liquidating doubtful loans and foreclosed assets since 2015. But the upcoming merger and need to assign a value to their balance sheets is putting pressure on them to accelerate their respective clean-ups.

Last year, Unicaja divested €995 million in doubtful loans and foreclosed homes, land, garages etc.

Original story: El Mundo (by César Urrutia)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Nyesa Buys 176 Homes from Liberbank for €5.8M

29 March 2019 – Eje Prime

Nyesa has purchased a batch of 176 homes from Liberbank for €5.8 million. Together the properties, which are all finished, span a combined surface area of more than 20,000 m2.

The company plans to sell some of the homes and rent out the others. According to the real estate company, the appraisal value of the property portfolio amounts to €13.3 million.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Liberbank Sells its HQ on the Outskirts of Madrid for €45.3M

1 March 2019 – El Confidencial

Last year, Liberbank sold its headquarters in Madrid for €45.3 million under a sale and leaseback arrangement, generating gains of €23.4 million. The bank will continue to occupy the property, located in the Fuente de la Mora area of the Spanish capital, on a rental basis.

Liberbank acquired the building from Sareb in 2015. The identity of the purchaser has not been revealed.

Original story: El Confidencial

Summary translation by: Carmel Drake

Countdown to Los Berrocales: Investment of €4.4bn Over 20 Years

18 February 2019 – Eje Prime

More millions for Los Berrocales. Joaquín Gómez, manager of the Los Berrocales Compensation Board, expects investment of up to €4.4 billion from the owners and future housing developers over 20 years. That amount will be added to the €200 million that has already been invested by the owners in pipelines, collectors, infrastructures, service roads and earth movement work.

The proposal that has been reached with the owners of Los Berrocales is that the neighbourhood will be constructed in phases. First, phases I and III, which are expected to involve the construction of 10,000 homes over 10 years. The rest of the construction work will be carried out in the following decade. Up to 100,000 homes from the plan, located in Los Cerros and Valdecarros, will be suspended due to the requests filed for compensation against the Town Hall, according to reports from Cinco Días.

Nevertheless, the approval of the agreement does not mean that the construction work is going to begin immediately. In fact, Gómez expects that construction of the homes could begin in 2022 or 2023. For now, there are no threats of suspensions for political reasons given that Ahora Madrid, Ciudadanos and the PP are all in favour of the project. The position of Pepu Hernández, the likely socialist candidate, if he is elected mayor, remains to be seen.

The owners of the 8.3 million m2 of land include Habitat, Pryconsa, Santander, Caixabank and Liberbank. Another of the major landowners is the Town Hall of Madrid, which holds almost 8% of the plots.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Unicaja Sells Problem Assets to Cerberus & AnaCap for €120M

23 January 2019 – Eje Prime

Unicaja is divesting its toxic assets. The Málaga-based entity sold two portfolios of problem assets amounting to €330 million to Cerberus and AnaCap at the end of 2018. In this way, it managed to clean up its balance sheet and improve its accounts for last year, ahead of the merger with Liberbank, reports El Confidencial.

The problem assets consisted of one portfolio of mortgages amounting to €230 million, which were sold to Cerberus and another portfolio containing property developer loans amounting to €100 million, which was acquired by AnaCap.

According to the latest published accounts, Unicaja held €3.9 billion in problem assets (flats, land and unpaid loans) as at September 2018, and so the two portfolios sold account for more than 8% of the total. In the market, it is estimated at the Málaga-based bank obtained proceeds of around €120 million in exchange for the sale of the two portfolios.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s Banks Plan to Sell Real Estate Worth €12.5bn+ over the Next 2 Years

19 November 2018 – El Economista

The banks have set themselves the deadline of 2020 to reduce the property that remains on their balance sheets to an absolute minimum. On the basis of the strategic plans set out by Bankia, Liberbank, Ibercaja and the portfolio of commercial premises put up for sale by Santander, the entities are planning to divest at least €12.5 billion in non-performing assets over the next 24 months.

At this stage, we do not yet know which objectives CaixaBank will set itself in this regard; the entity will unveil its new strategic plan in London on 27 November. Meanwhile, the entity led by Ana Botín has delayed the presentation of its new objectives to the beginning of next year, as it awaits the evolution of the outcome of the elections held in Brazil in October. The exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, which must take place in March, is also important for the group.

Spain’s entities have accelerated the divestment of their real estate in a frantic fashion over the last 15 months. This summer, Banco Sabadell sold four portfolios of non-performing assets for a combined gross value of €12.2 billion. Those operations allowed the entity to fulfil in one fell swoop the objective that it had set itself in its Strategic Plan 2018-2020 to reduce its non-performing assets by €2 billion per year.

At the end of the third quarter of this year, the entity led by Josep Oliu held €13.62 billion in toxic property left on its balance sheet, nevertheless, once the sales undertaken this summer have been completed, that exposure will be reduced by almost half to €7.67 billion, most of which comprises doubtful loans. The exposure of foreclosed assets has been reduced to around €1.2 billion.

Orderly reduction

With respect to Bankia, in its Strategic Plan to 2020, the entity projected an annual reduction in non-performing assets of €2.9 billion, which would result in the clean-up of €8.7 billion over three years. The bank chaired by José Ignacio Goirigolzarri has divested €2.4 billion during the first three quarters of this year, according to its latest accounts at the end of September, which means that it needs to sell only another €500 million during the final quarter (…).

In the same way, Liberbank closed the third quarter of the year with gross non-performing assets amounting to €3.6 billion, 25% less than it held a year ago. The bank has set itself the objective of leaving €1.7 billion on its balance sheet by the end of 2020, in other words, €1.9 billion less than it currently has.

Finally, Ibercaja, which also unveiled its objectives to 2020 in March, announced its plans to reduce its toxic assets by 50% in three years, which would mean decreasing the balance by around €1.85 billion.

15 months of sales

Santander fired the starting gun on this race with the sale of 50% of Popular’s property to Blackstone, in an operation announced in August last year. Since then, the largest sale by the bank was a portfolio of flats and garages to Cerberus in September, for a purchase price of around €1.535 billion. Thus, the bank still has a second portfolio of foreclosed assets up for sale with a gross value of around €2.4 billion (…).

The most active investment funds to purchase portfolios over the last few months have been Cerberus, Blackstone and Lone Star. Between then three of them, they have made acquisitions of foreclosed assets and doubtful loans from the Spanish banks and Sareb amounting to €48 billion (…).

Original story: El Economista (by Eva Díaz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Haya Real Estate Negotiates Contracts with Sareb & BBVA Ahead of its IPO

31 July 2018 – Europa Press

Haya Real Estate, the Spanish real estate servicer owned by the US fund Cerberus, has linked its possible IPO in Spain to the “visibility” that it obtains over the negotiations that it is holding to renew its contract to manage the real estate assets of Sareb and to take over the contract of BBVA.

That is according to the firm’s Finance Director, Bárbara Zubiria, speaking during the presentation of the servicer’s half-year results.

With respect to Sareb, Haya Real Estate is currently offering the bad bank various alternatives ahead of the termination, in mid-2019, of its contract to manage some of the bad bank’s assets.

In terms of BBVA, the firm is waiting for the entity to decide whether to award it the management of the assets that it is going to transfer to a joint venture owned by the bank together with Cerberus.

For the time being, during the first half of the year, Haya Real estate saw its revenues rise by 20% to €130.2 million, boosted by an “increase” in the commissions that it charges for its activity and management.

Meanwhile, the EBITDA grew by 16% to €64.9 million, according to reports from the company.

During the first half of the year, the servicer led by Carlos Abad managed assets amounting to €38.8 billion, on which it closed transactions worth €2.4 billion, up by 58% YoY.

In financial terms, at the end of the period, the firm had corporate debt amounting to €463 million.

Spain’s first listed servicer

Haya Real Estate is continuing to weigh up the pros and cons of its leap onto the stock market even though two of the three real estate companies that had announced their debuts, Azora and Testa Residencial, postponed their own IPOs and have opted to list on the MAB instead.

In the event that it does make its stock market debut, the firm led by Abad will become the first of its kind to list on the stock market in Spain and one of the first in Europe.

The servicer of Cerberus is not a real estate company, but rather a company that manages and develops real estate assets for third parties, in this case, primarily assets that were foreclosed by the financial institutions during the crisis.

Constituted in 2013, the firm currently manages loans and real estate assets worth almost €40 billion. Some of the entities that have entrusted the firm with the management of their assets include Cajamar, Liberbank, BBVA, Sareb and Bankia, amongst others.

Original story: Europa Press

Translation: Carmel Drake