Sabadell Sells €9.1bn to Cerberus & €2.5bn to Deutsche Bank

19 July 2018 – Voz Pópuli

Banco Sabadell is selling its property to Cerberus and Deutsche Bank. The Catalan entity has agreed with the US fund to transfer 80% of its foreclosed assets, worth €9.1 billion for €3.9 billion. And is finalising the sale of €2.5 billion in real estate loans proceeding from CAM to Deutsche Bank, according to financial sources consulted by Vozpópuli. The entities involved all declined to comment.

The agreement with Cerberus, which this newspaper revealed, includes two of the four large portfolios for sale: “Challenger”, containing assets from the bank – around €5 billion – and “Coliseum”, containing foreclosed assets proceeding from CAM and with public aid from the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD).

According to a statement filed with the CNMV, Sabadell values those two portfolios at €9.1 billion and is selling them to a new company for €3.9 billion, equivalent to 42% of the initial appraisal value. Cerberus will own 80% of the new company and Sabadell the remaining 20%, in such a way that the bank will receive around €3.1 billion. The sale requires provisions of €92 million. The Solvia platform was left out of the agreement.

Agreement with Deutsche Bank

Meanwhile, the agreement with Deutsche Bank is for Project Makalu, another of the four portfolios that Sabadell put up for sale. It already sold the first, unsecured, portfolio – Project Galerna – to the fund Axactor.

Of the four portfolios, this is the largest containing loans backed by real estate collateral. And it is protected by the public aid that Sabadell received for the purchase of CAM, at the end of 2011. For that reason, this operation, which may be signed in the next few days, requires the approval of the FGD.

Deutsche Bank has fought off tough competition from Oaktree and Lone Star to acquire this portfolio. The price of the operation could reach between €800 million to €900 million, according to market valuations. The advisor on the sale has been KPMG.

The German bank is one of the typical buyers of these types of portfolio, although until now, it had not purchased anything of this magnitude in Spain. Last year, it closed two operations, one with Sareb amounting to €400 million and the other with CaixaBank amounting to €700 million.

Balance sheet

Following the imminent agreement with Deutsche Bank, the divestment team at Sabadell led by Jaume Oliu and Simon Castellá will have transferred €12.5 billion in problem assets to Cerberus, Deutsche Bank and Axactor.

This latest acquisition by Cerberus is the fourth largest in history in Spain, behind the sale of Popular’s property to Blackstone – €30 billion; the sale of BBVA’s property to Cerberus – €14 billion; and the most recent sale of CaixaBank’s property to Lone Star – €12.8 billion.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s Banks Set to Sell €120bn+ in Problem Assets This Year

4 July 2018 – Cinco Días

Spain’s banks are stepping down on the accelerator to put an end to the property hangover, although it will still take another two or three years for them to get rid of all of the excesses left over from the financial crisis. And that is not so much due to the leftover real estate portfolios but more because of the portfolios of non-performing loans, a caption that is continuing to augment the balance sheets of financial institutions.

In this way, the experts hope that this year will see a new record in terms of the sale of portfolios, for an approximate total of €120 billion, including the macro-operations from Santander and BBVA, announced last year but completed this year. Without them, the figure could amount to more than €51 billion, slightly higher than in 2017, which would increase to €80 billion if Sareb manages to sell a €30 billion portfolio.

Pressure from the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Spain, as well as that exerted by the market itself, is causing financial institutions to opt to sell their portfolios of problem assets in single operations wherever possible, rather than selling them off in a piecemeal fashion, in light of the prospects of rising prices.

Interest from opportunistic funds to invest in Spain and, also forecasts for even greater price rises for real estate assets in the future, are leading the banks to take advantage of the opportunity to clean-up their balance sheets between this year and next, just 10 years after the start of the crisis, explain several experts.

“The funds have large amounts of liquidity. Moreover, interest rates are still at historical minimums (still negative) and so financing can be obtained at very low prices, hence their interest in buying large portfolios of assets linked to property. They want to take advantage of the current climate”, explains Íñigo Laspiur, Director of Corporate Finance CBRE España.

All of the experts agree that the sale by Santander of Popular’s property to Blackstone, an operation announced last year, but ratified at the beginning of this year, for a gross amount of around €30 billion, was the trigger that caused the banks to decide to divest their portfolios on a mass scale.

Since that operation was ratified at the beginning of this year, to date, the banks have divested more than €62 billion in problem assets. That amount includes BBVA’s operation with Cerberus, the fund to which it sold €13 billion. Nevertheless, that operation is still pending approval from the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD) since some of it forms part of the Asset Protection Scheme (EPA), having proceeded from the former savings bank Unnim.

Financial sources maintain that there are currently operations underway amounting to another €21 billion, plus an addition €8 billion that may be closed over the coming months. The largest include the sale of around €11 billion in assets from Sabadell (of which €900 million has already been sold to Axactor), whose sale is scheduled for this month.

To these figures another €30 billion gross may be added from the sale of a Sareb portfolio this year if Pedro Sánchez’s Government approves that potential operation in the end. Santander has also put up for sale another €6 billion.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Ángeles Gonzalo Alconada)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Funds Bidding for Sabadell’s RE Have Until 27 June to Submit Their Offers

24 June 2018 – La Vanguardia

The deadline for the finalist funds to submit their bids to be awarded Banco Sabadell’s four portfolios comprising problem assets, whose combined value amounts to almost €11 billion, will close definitively on Wednesday, 27 June, the date on which the entity will have to choose the winners, according to sources close to funds consulted by Europa Press.

The entity chaired by Josep Oliu is looking to divest its Challenger and Coliseum portfolios, which amount to around €7.5 billion and comprise foreclosed assets (REO) and Makalu and Galerna, worth €2.5 billion and €900 million, respectively, comprising non-performing loans (NPLs).

Nevertheless, according to explanations provided by market sources, Sabadell is only going to be able to deconsolidate the largest portfolio from its balance sheet this year, the so-called Challenger portfolio (worth around €5 billion). The others will have to wait as they need to receive the green light from the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD) since the properties that constitute them proceed from the former CAM – Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo – a process that could take months (…).

The main international funds specialising in distressed debt and assets in risk of default are bidding for these portfolios. They are proposing significant discounts to their nominal values and their recoveries depends on the guarantee or collateral.

The strong investor appetite for Sabadell’s toxic property comes in a context in which political uncertainty is continuing to rage on the Old Continent. Cerberus, Blackstone, Lone Star and Oaktree are some of the finalist funds to be awarded the first two portfolios, whilst Deutsche Bank, Bain Capital, Oaktree and CPPIB are going to compete for the assets in the other two, according to sources at the funds and banks, speaking to ‘El Confidencial’ and ‘Vozpópuli’.

Significant reduction in real estate exposure

With the deconsolidation of its largest portfolio alone, Sabadell’s real estate exposure would fall below the €10 billion threshold, whilst the sale of all four portfolios would reduce its balance to around €4 billion, according to the accounts published by the bank for the first quarter of 2018. Thus, once the transactions have been completed, Sabadell’s accounts will have a much healthier balance sheet.

As at 31 March 2018, the entity had €14.9 billion in problem assets, which represented a decrease of 17.6% compared to the end of the same period a year earlier, when the figure amounted to €18.1 billion. The coverage ratio of the problem assets amounted to 55.2%, after applying IFRS 9, with a doubtful coverage ratio of 56.6% and a foreclosed asset coverage ratio of 53.7%. Similarly, the ratio of net problem assets over total assets stood at 3.1% (…).

A source of liquidity for the banks

In this way, Banco Sabadell is following in the footsteps of other entities such as Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank in the reduction of its heavy backpack of toxic assets, which the financial crisis left on their balance sheets (…).

Original story: La Vanguardia 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s Banks Race Against the Clock to Sell Off Their Problem RE Assets

28 May 2018 – Eje Prime

The banks are facing a new record. The entities have cut their problem assets almost in half over the last four years, but now they are trying to get rid of thousands of properties in record time to keep the supervisor happy, along with investors. The Bank of Spain warned just this week that the volume of impaired assets continues to be high, given that foreclosed assets amount to €58 billion and doubtful loans still amount to almost €100 billion, something that concerns the ECB and penalises the sector on the stock market.

Specifically, Spanish banks’ problem assets amounted to €152 billion at the end of 2017, a very high volume, but 46% lower than the €280 billion registered as at December 2013.

In addition to the cost that maintaining these assets on the balance sheet has for entities, they also prevent them from allocating resources to other activities more in keeping with the banking sector that would generate higher returns, which worsens the problems of returns in the sector especially at a time of very low interest rates.

In 2017, in the face of clear pressure on the banks to significantly reduce their problem assets, the Spanish market resurfaced to account for approximately 50% of the European market for the sale of problem assets, recall the experts.

The announcement by Cerberus of its purchase of 80% of BBVA’s problem assets and the acquisition by Blackstone of 51% of Aliseda and of Popular’s non-performing assets clearly marked a turning point.

And currently, taking into account the portfolios that are up for sale and the forecasts for the reduction in non-performing assets in the plans of many Spanish banks, a high volume of transactions is also expected in 2018.

The entities are on the case

Sabadell is planning to decrease its non-performing assets by €2 billion per year until 2020, although, depending on investor appetite and the agreements with the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD), that figure may rise considerably in 2018, explain sources at Funcas.

Meanwhile, in its strategic plan for 2018-2020, Bankia is forecasting the sale of €2.9 billion problem assets per year, even though the entity got rid of much of its real estate hangover with the creation of Sareb, the bad bank.

The placement on the market of this significant volume of assets is not only limited to the large entities; it is also involving smaller firms such as Ibercaja and Liberbank, which are also planning to divest assets.

In the case of the former, its plans involve cutting its problem assets in half between now and 2020, which translates into a decrease of around €600 million per year, whilst Liberbank is looking at reductions of €900 million per year until 2020.

For 2018, Santander has set itself the objective of €6 billion, whilst Sareb is aiming for €3 billion, which shows the real commitment that the entities have to cleaning up their balance sheets and to keeping the supervisor, and the markets, happy. Now they just need to deliver.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bankia Prepares €1bn Toxic Asset Sale to Digest BMN’s Real Estate

17 May 2018 – Voz Pópuli

Bankia is working on one of its largest divestments since José Ignacio Goirigolzarri took charge of the group. The nationalised entity is assessing the sale of a portfolio of problem assets worth €1 billion, the largest since 2015, according to financial sources consulted by Voz Pópuli.

The bank’s teams have not defined the exact perimeter of the portfolio yet nor have they prepared the sales documentation together with an advisor. Nevertheless, the plan is that the project will come onto the market in the summer and be closed during the final quarter of the year.

The portfolio will contain flats and real estate loans inherited from Bankia’s former savings banks as well as from BMN, the group that it merged with at the end of last year. The increase in the size of the portfolio with respect to previous years is precisely due to the integration of the group chaired by Carlos Egea, which contributed €4.4 billion in toxic assets to Bankia’s existing €12.8 billion portfolio.

Strategic objective

In the strategic plan, announced at the beginning of the year, Goirigolzarri stressed the objective of reducing its exposure to problem assets by almost €3 billion from €17.2 billion at the end of 2017. During the first quarter, it managed to clean up €600 million. That rhythm, together with the portfolio that it is working on, would enable it to meet the objective in 2018.

For the time being, Bankia is not working on any multi-million euro operations, such as the ones closed last year by Santander and BBVA, and the one that Banco Sabadell is currently exploring.

By contrast, Bankia is placing portfolios of between €200 million and €500 million on the market to maximise the return that it obtains for its shareholders.

In this vein, it has Project Beetle underway, containing €400 million in problem loans, and it recently put Project Vera on the market, comprising €250 million in non-performing loans. Moreover, it has sold a portfolio worth €300 million to the fund GoldenTree Asset Management, according to El Independiente.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Axis: Spain’s Banks Will Divest At Least €40bn of Their Problem RE Assets This Year

30 March 2018 – El Mundo

Spain’s banks are still trying to lighten their balance sheets of the huge load left on them by the real estate crisis. Forecasts for this year indicate that they will manage to divest assets worth at least €40 billion including properties, foreclosed land and defaulted and non-performing loans.

Those are the estimates made by the consultancy firm Axis Corporate on the basis of operations that are currently being sounded out in the Spanish real estate sector. The figure includes transactions worth at least €9 billion by Sareb, sales of around €6 billion by Bankia and operations by CaixaBank and Banco Sabadell with a volume of close to €12 billion each. “To all of these operations, we have to add the retail operations that the servicers are currently undertaking”, explains José Masip, Real Estate Partner at Axis Corporate and coordinator of the Assets Under Management Observatory Report published recently by the company.

In 2017, sales of toxic assets linked to real estate exceeded €50 billion, “almost twice the €27.4 billion sold between 2012 and 2016”, says the report. Spanish entities are accelerating the clean up of this type of asset from their balance sheets to reduce their default rates and fulfil the European regulations that force entities to reduce the weight of non-performing assets to pre-crisis levels. Despite that and according to data from the consultancy firm JLL, the volume of non-performing assets with real estate collateral in the hands of the banks and Sareb amounts to around €200 billion: €80 billion in REOs (foreclosed assets) and €120 billion in NPLs (Non Performing Loans or doubtful credits).

Greater weight of funds

Both firms predict that the rate of sales seen last year will continue in 2018, above all due to the growing interest from international investment funds (…).

The main investment funds focused on the purchase of real estate assets in Spain are Bain Capital, Oaktree, EOS Spain, Apollo and Axactor, who are following in the footsteps of others such as Blackstone and Cerberus.

The latter two entities starred in the two most important operations of last year. In July, Santander sold a portfolio comprising 51% of the toxic property it had inherited following the purchase of Banco Popular to Blackstone in an operation worth €5.1 billion; meanwhile, in November, BBVA sold 80% of its real estate portfolio to Cerberus for around €4 billion. In a similar operation, also in 2017, Liberbank sold part of its toxic portfolio to the funds Bain and Oceanwood for €602 million.

The transactions were structured through the creation of joint ventures in all cases, in which the bank held a minority percentage of the company or servicer and the acquiring fund took over the bulk of the management. According to Emilio Portes, Director of the Portfolio Business at JLL for Southern Europe, “the structure offers entities a stake in the profits of the assets with upside potential at the same time as cleaning up their balance sheets and slightly improving their capital ratios. Similarly, it offers buyers more advantageous prices without limiting their strategy and management capacity”.

Indeed, in Axis’s opinion, those servicers are expected to be some of the main players in the market over the short and medium term. According to data from the consultancy firm, more than 80% of the assets under management are in the hands of five of them: Altamira (linked to Santander), Servihabitat (CaixaBank), Haya/Anida (controlled by Cerberus after the operation with BBVA), Aliseda/Anticipa (Blackstone) and Solvia (Sabadell). The outlook for this year points to greater concentration in the sector, “with the possible sale of some of the existing servicers”, in such a way that their specialisation and differentiation will be definitive.

Original story: El Mundo (by María Hernández)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s Banks Take Advantage of The Expansive RE Cycle to Sell Properties

21 January 2018 – Efe Empresas

According to Joaquín Robles, analyst at XTB, speaking in an interview with Efe, the banks have waited “for several years for a recovery in house prices” to reduce their exposure to property.

The good health that the real estate sector is currently enjoying is reflected in a study from BBVA Research, which shows that new home prices are expected to rise by 4.9% in 2018. The banking institutions have also decided to reduce their real estate weight due to the changes that have been introduced to international and Spanish accounting legislation.

The new regulations require entities to increase their provisions using own funds to strengthen their capital ratios, with the aim of being more solvent in the event of another possible market crash in the future.

These modifications “will translate into an increase in provisions of 13% on average for the large European banks”, said Robles.

Real estate sales is a correct strategy for the banks

The sale of real estate assets is “a correct strategy from the point of view of banking management”, says the Partner responsible for the Financial Sector at KPMG in EMA and the Head Partner of KPMG Abogados, Javier Uría.

In fact, “the divestment of real estate assets that is happening will result in the strengthening of the sector”, he added.

Spanish banks have reduced their real estate assets in a greater proportion than other European banks, as a result of the effects of the economic crisis and the evolution of the economy.

One example of that is BBVA, which decided to reduce its exposure to property to a minimum, with the sale in November of its Spanish real estate arm to the investment fund Cerberus for €4 billion.

That operation was “hugely important” for BBVA, since it reduced its exposure “to an activity that is unrelated to its core business”, according to comments made at the time by the CEO of the entity, Carlos Torres Vila.

Uría said that Sareb has made an important contribution to this process.

That company, also known as the “bad bank”, was created with the objective of reducing the risks of the financial institutions and orderly liquidating the problem real estate assets within a maximum period of 15 years.

Sareb received almost 200,000 assets worth €50.781 billion, of which 80% were financial assets and 20% were real estate assets.

The income statements of the banking entities will be affected by their real estate divestments in a positive way, since they will result in lower requirements in terms of capital and provisions, as well as in a “reduction in the costs associated with the ownership of these types of assets”, concluded Uría.

Original story: Efe Empresas (by Javier Melguizo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

 

Popular Puts €1,500M Macro RE Portfolio Up For Sale

6 June 2017 – Voz Pópuli

(…). The entity chaired by Emilio Saracho (pictured above) has launched an express plan to sell its problem assets and one of the key elements is the sale of the largest real estate portfolio to come onto the market in Spain since 2015. The portfolio of properties has been designed by KPMG, and has an initial value of between €1,500 million and €2,000 million, according to financial sources consulted by Vozpópuli. This is part of the plan that the entity is presenting to the ECB today to regain the confidence of the regulators. (…).

In addition, Saracho has spent the last few days meeting with investment banks to see how to accelerate the unblocking of Popular’s problem assets. (…).

The sale of problem assets is critical for Banco Popular regardless of its future. The heavy weight of those assets (worth €37,000 million) is the source of this entity’s problems, which have been further compounded in recent months by its capital and liquidity troubles and the risk of claims. (…).

For this reason, Banco Popular needs to accelerate the sale of the €36,800 million that it owns in toxic assets as soon as possible. Above all, it needs to focus on its foreclosed assets, which have the lowest level of coverage (38.5%) and which most concern the market and potential buyers. To bring the provisioning level of its properties in line with the levels adopted by BBVA and Santander, Popular would need to recognise (additional provisions of) around €1,500 million to €2,000 million.

Under the spotlight

With the sale of portfolios such as the one being advised by KPMG, Banco Popular would reduce some of its problems. Even so, financial sources doubt that the short term future of the entity is going to be determined by operations such as this one (…). Rather, they add, that this is a way of getting ahead with the work, regardless of the solution.

In this sense, the banks that are considering submitting a bid for Banco Popular have been making contact with opportunistic funds and investment banks over the last few weeks to work out how to share out the Spanish entity: the good bank could go to Santander, BBVA and Bankia, and the problem assets could go to overseas investors.

The key to accelerating the unblocking of the real estate assets is the prices that Banco Popular can accept on the basis of its provisions. Currently, the foreclosed assets are recognised on the balance sheet at 60% of their initial values, well above the values demanded by the opportunistic funds, which are closer to 30-40% of their initial values (…).

The portfolio that Popular is preparing represents one of the largest currently up for sale in Europe and the fourth largest to go on the market in Spain ever, after: Project Hércules, involving €6,400 million in problematic mortgages from Catalunya Banc, which was acquired by Blackstone; Project Octopus, containing €4,500 million in Eurohypo loans, which were purchased by Lone Star and JPMorgan; and Project Big Bang, which saw Bankia put most of its foreclosed assets up for sale, in a deal that it negotiated to the end with Cerberus, but which failed to close.

The two main favourites to acquire this latest portfolio are Blackstone and Apollo, the two funds that have been buying Popular’s other portfolios to date, albeit smaller ones, averaging around €400 million to €500 million. The entity currently has another process underway, involving a €500 million portfolio, which is being coordinated by Irea, and in which the following entities are competing: Oaktree, Apollo, Bank of America and Bain Capital.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Builds Rental Home Giant In Spain

18 May 2017 – Cinco Días

The fund Blackstone is the largest property owner in the world and has been backing real estate Spain for a while now. And, it is going to continue to do so in the short to medium term. For the time being, the fund’s plans involve becoming a giant in the rental housing segment and it is already starting to show its investment strategy through several companies, including three new Socimis.

Blackstone’s first major step was to create the servicer Anticipa Real Estate, under the structure of the former entity Cataluña Caixa Inmobiliaria. This asset management platform purchased 40,000 mortgages from the extinct Catalan entity for €4,123 million in 2015. Since then, it has continued acquiring these kinds of mortgage portfolios, to accumulate a total investment to date of almost €7,000 million.

The latest acquisitions made by Blackstone – which is headquartered in New York – have included a €400 million portfolio of loans backed by property developer collateral and another portfolio from BBVA comprising 3,500 properties, for around €300 million.

This entire portfolio of mortgage debt and properties is managed by Anticipa, a company that is led by its CEO, Eduard Mendiluce, a veteran director in the sector. (…).

The work that the servicer performs for Blackstone involves managing the loans granted by banks to individuals and property developers. In many cases, that task ends with the “dación en pago” or foreclosure of the property or development, due to non-payment. The company says that it treats each client on a case by case basis, and the process often means it has to accept a discount on the debt.

Of the portfolios acquired from banks, “daciones en pago” and foreclosures, Anticipa already owns 12,000 properties, which are leased out (in around 75% of cases) and put up for sale. “The idea is for it to become one of the large owners of rental housing in Spain”, explains a spokesperson.

The opportunistic fund – which purchases problem assets at a discount – is planning to remain in the Spanish market beyond the short term, and has absolutely no interest in selling its businesses within the next 5-7 years, but rather intends to benefit from the upwards trend in property.

To create the residential giant, the US firm has started to create vehicles to which it will transfer properties for rent. The first of these companies is Albirana Properties, a Socimi that started to trade on the Alternative Investment Market in March. That listed investment company, which benefits from certain tax advantages, already manages 5,000 homes.

But it is only the first to be listed. Other Socimis, namely Pegarena and Tourmalet, which have already been constituted and are already owned by several Blackstone funds, will follow. These firms, in turn, operate using Anticipa as their manager. (…).

Packaging up these homes into different companies will facilitate the sale of those companies in the future to various interested parties.

Blackstone decided to back the rental sector rather than the sales market at a time of change in the type of demand, according to experts in the sector. In particular, the generation of millennials, for cultural reasons – are more inclined to live without the tie of a mortgage – and, above all, the difficulties being faced by young people to obtain loans given the job insecurity.

Unlike other Socimis that specialise in rental housing, the management of assets by Albirana is more complex, given that its properties are relatively scattered geographically, as they proceed from individual mortgages. Typically these companies opt to manage entire buildings, but Blackstone’s company has specialised in what is known as granular management.

Currently, the majority of these properties are located in Cataluña. They are followed – at some distance – by homes in Madrid, Comunidad Valenciana and Andalucía.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

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