Tag: problem assets

Project Lane: Bankia Negotiates Sale Of €400M Secured Portfolio

13 June 2016 – Expansión

Project Big Bang paralysed the Spanish financial sector in 2015. At the time, Bankia tried to sell all of its foreclosed assets in a single transaction, including: 38,500 homes, 2,600 plots of land and 5,000 commercial premises, worth €4,800 million. A large number of funds were interested in the sale, but only Cerberus and Oaktree expressed their intention to submit binding offers. The prices and conditions did not match with Bankia’s expections and so it decided to suspend the operation at the end of the year. (…).

With all of those roadblocks, Bankia decided that it would maximise the value of its foreclosed assets by keeping them on the balance sheet and selling them off through the retail channel and in smaller portfolios, such as the case of Project Lane, see below. Even so, sources in the sector expect to see fresh attempts to sell large portfolios of foreclosed assets over the next few months and years, something that more than one entity has planned for 2016. To this end, the markets must improve further and provisions should be adjusted even more to the prices being offered by the funds. The Bank of Spain’s new accounting circular, which comes into force in October, is expected to help in this sense and to accelerate the divestment of the banks’ problem assets.

Project Lane

Now, Bankia is negotiating the sale of a portfolio of homes with three international funds, in an operation known as Project Lane. The entity is being advised by KPMG and is looking to transfer around 2,500 homes worth c. €400 million, according to financial sources.

The operation is in a very advanced phase, with binding offers due to be submitted next week. Bankia and its advisor have selected three funds, which according to the same sources, do not include Cerberus.

Initially, the US fund was the favourite buyer for the operation, on the basis that it knows the assets better than anyone else through Haya Real Estate, the former Bankia Habitat, which manages homes and real estate loans from Bankia. In fact, Cerberus was the fund that was closest to acquiring Big Bang, with an offer of around €2,100 million.

The portfolio of assets on sale as part of Project Lane primarily comprises homes, but also includes industrial and commercial assets, to a lesser extent. It is the largest sale of foreclosed assets that any of the banks have put on the market so far in 2016. Only Cajamar has explored this option in recent months, with Project Omeya – around €72 million -, as it waits to see what will happen during the second half of the year. The 2,500 homes on sale represent around 6% of the total haul that Bankia has on its balance sheet. The entity sold 9,200 properties through its branch network and Haya Real Estate last year. The aim is to try and repeat those figures in 2016.

Since the new management team, led by José Ignacio Goirigolzarri (pictured above), took over at Bankia, the nationalised group has been one of the most active in the sale of portfolios. Last year, it sold more than 80 batches of problem assets, which allowed it to decrease its doubtful debt balance from €20,000 million in 2013 to €12,500 million by March 2016. It has managed to do this thanks to higher provisions.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga and S. Arancibia)

Translation: Carmel Drake

BBVA Reorganises Its “Bad Bank” After Key Director Leaves

6 June 2016 – Expansión

BBVA has put a new spin on the organisation of its bad bank. The entity chaired by Francisco González recently announced the disappearance of its problem assets division – Non Performing Assets – after agreeing the departure of its main Director and dividing up its functions between two other divisions, according to financial sources.

The Spanish group already reconfigured the division just over two years ago. Then, it handed over the task of accelerating the sale of problem assets to Pedro Urresti (pictured above), the Director who has now just left the entity as part of the reorganisation.

Urresti joined BBVA in 2006 from JPMorgan, where he had been responsible for Capital Markets in Spain and Portugal. At BBVA, where he replaced Carlos Pertego – the current Director of Goldman Sachs – he led the Financial Management and Investor Relations department until 2011, when González put him in charge of problem assets.

Following the dissolution of that area and the departure of Urresti, BBVA has chosen to divide its functions and share them out between two divisions. On the one hand, everything relating to real estate assets will be transferred to BBVA Real Estate – the unit in which Anida sits – led by Agustín Vidal-Aragón. On the other hand, the activity relating to the sale of debt portfolios will be transferred to Javier Rodríguez Soler, the bank’s Director of Strategy and M&A.

Reinforcement

Rodríguez Soler was one of the Directors who’s profile increased following the reorganisation of the management team performed by González last year, when he appointed Carlos Torres as the new CEO, to replace Ángel Cano. The Head of M&A, who until then had reported to the Finance Director, Jaime Sáenz de Tejada, went on to lead his own division, reporting directly to the President.

As a result of the new changes, BBVA hopes to accelerate the sale of its real estate assets, whose balance barely decreased last year, due to the takeover of Catalunya Banc.

During the two and a half years that Urresti has been in charge of the problem assets division, BBVA has been one of the least active large Spanish entities in the sale of portfolios, and has barely transferred any portfolios of loans or homes.

Meanwhile, other financial groups such as CaixaBank, Sabadell and Bankia have taken advantage of the improvement in the market to sell €17,000 million worth of non-strategic assets.

Furthermore, the entity has not sought to make any alliances in the sector through the sale of part or all of its real estate arm, like other entities did, including Santander, CaixaBank, Bankia, Sabadell and Popular, amongst others. It did consider selling off its collections business and it appointed KPMG to coordinate that sale, but it ended up pulling out.

According to financial sources, this strategy means that the sales rate of its real estate assets is slower, but the bank would benefit in the event of a faster than expected economic recovery, as it would obtain more in return for its properties and real estate collateral. Nevertheless, the risk still exists that the opposite may happen.

Original story: Expansión (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Banks Still Own Problem Assets Amounting To €213,000M

5 May 2016 – Cinco Días

Spain’s banks still have a heavy burden weighing down on them following the burst of the real estate bubble: they now own foreclosed assets worth €84,000 million, taken on since the start of the crisis.

According to the Bank of Spain in its financial stability report, published on Wednesday, that figure “has remained stable since December 2012, always ranging between €75,000 million and €84,000 million”.

Of that amount, 37.6% relates to land, 25% to finished buildings, 22.3% are foreclosed assets resulting from the acquisition of homes, and 5% are buildings under construction.

In the last year, land has decreased by 0.5 points, finished buildings have dropped by 0.43 points, homes have increased by 1.8 points and buildings under construction have remained stable.

But beyond these properties, the banks’ exposure to non-performing assets and problem loans amount to almost €213,000 million in Spain’s financial sector as a holw.

The banks have lots of “non-performing assets on their balance sheets, which do not generate any revenues for the income statement, but which do require financing”, said the financial supervisor, which has published data relating to 2015 year-end.

“A hindrance to solvency”

The Bank of Spain also warns that “although these two indicators have decreased, by 14.5% as a whole, over the last year, they still represent a significant percentage of the total assets of the banks in their business in Spain and they place negative pressure on the income statements of the entities, reducing their profit generation capability and therefore, representing a hindrance to increasing the solvency of the institutions”.

In terms of total loans that have been refinanced or restructured, that balance amounted to €205,000 million at the end of last year, which represents a YoY decrease of 6.4% compared with the end of 2014.

Of the total amount of loans whose initial terms have been adjusted, “51.5% relate to non-financial companies and 46.2% to households”, said the Bank of Spain.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Juande Portillo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Puts €1,300M NPL Portfolio Up For Sale

20 April 2016 – Expansión

Sabadell has become the most determined Spanish entity when it comes to trying to clean up its balance sheet. The entity chaired by Josep Oliu (pictured above) has two portfolios up for sale through which it hopes to sell off €1,300 million of non-performing assets. Moreover, it may soon add another €1,700 million portfolio, if a large deal that the entity is currently preparing eventually goes up for sale. In total, €3,000 million, of which €2,200 million comprises doubtful loans linked to real estate developments, and which represent around one sixth of its doubtful assets in Spain. The remainder, €800 million, relate to non-performing consumer loans.

The latest divestment to come onto the market is Project Pirene, advised by KPMG, containing €460 million of problem assets linked to property developers, according to sources consulted at international funds. Unlike some of its recent operations, this one originates from Sabadell’s own business, and not from CAM, Caixa Penedès or Banco Gallego.

This operation combines Project Corus, with €800 million non-performing consumer loans; and Project Normandy, under assessment, with €1,700 million non-performing real estate loans, according to El Confidencial.

The Catalan group hopes to close the first two operations within the next two months, so that they may be accounted for in its financial statements for the first half of the year. Meanwhile, Project Normandy may be delayed somewhat due to its large size. In fact, the operation would be one of the largest seen in Spain in recent years. The largest, Project Big Bang, containing €4,800 million in foreclosed assets, was suspended by Bankia due to its complexity and the large discounts being demanded by the funds.

Sabadell was one of the Spanish entities that reduced its default rate by the most during 2015. Following the purchase of the British bank TSB, its default rate fell by almost five percentage points. If we exclude that acquisition, the rate fell by almost three percentage points, from 12.74% to 9.86%. In total, the entity manages €21,500 million of problem assets, with a coverage ratio of 53% for its doubtful debts and of 44% for its real estate assets.

Besides these operations launched by Sabadell, only a handful of other entities have decided to divest their problem assets so far in 2016, namely Cajamar, Bankia and BBVA. Popular announced that it would be very active, but it has not yet put any portfolios on the market.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Buys 4,500 Rental Homes From Sabadell

13 January 2016 – Expansión

Blackstone has won one of the largest ever real estate auctions and it did so during the final days of 2015. A few weeks ago, the US fund completed the acquisition of 4,500 rental homes from Banco Sabadell, according to financial sources consulted by Expansión.

This represents the largest block sale of homes by a Spanish bank in recent years, given that the sale is still pending of two larger portfolios that Bankia and Ibercaja have put on the market.

The latest operation, which forms part of Project Empire, has now been signed by both parties; a few conditions precedent are still outstanding, but they are expected to be resolved within the next few weeks. Given that the agreement was actually reached in 2015, it will be accounted for within last year’s results, which Banco Sabadell will announce on 29 January.

The portfolio was initially valued at around €600 million, however, after it was first put on the market, the number of flats included in the portfolio decreased from 5,000 to 4,500 (bringing the valuation down to €540 million). The interested funds had been demanding discounts of between 40% and 70% for banks’ portfolios of homes, on the basis of the quality of the assets. In the case of Project Empire, since the homes in the portfolio are all rented out, the price obtained by Sabadell could have been higher, given that Blackstone will obtain regular rental income, as well as taking ownership of the assets.

Firm commitment

This purchase strengthens the US fund’s position in Spain, whose senior advisor is Claudio Boada. The homes will be managed by Blackstone’s real estate subsidiary, Anticipa, the entity formerly known as CatalunyaCaixa Inmobiliaria, led by Eduard Mendiluce. In addition, the fund has three other subsidiaries in Spain, which also manage property investments, namely: Fidere, which focuses on homes for rent (many of which are social housing properties); Logicor, which concentrates on the logistics asset segment; and Multi Development, which specialises in shopping centres.

Blackstone completed its largest ever investment in Spain last year, with the purchase of 40,000 mortgages from Catalunya Banc, worth €6,400 million for €3,600 million. Anticipa manages that portfolio, together with a few others acquired from entities such as CaixaBank, taking the entity’s total assets under management to €10,000 million.

Another one of the most active investors in Spain in recent months has been Oaktree, which competed against Blackstone to take over Sabadell’s portfolio.

For the Catalan entity, this operation allows it to continue improving the quality of its balance sheet through the sale of non-performing assets. Sabadell has reduced the volume of problem assets on its balance sheet by €3,500 million since the start of 2014 ,to €22,350 million at the end of September 2015.

In addition to Project Empire, Sabadell sold other portfolios last year to investors such as Pimco, Aiqon and Sankaty. Altogether, it transferred assets worth €2,400 million to those funds in 2015.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga/S. Saborit)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Echegoyen Explains Sareb’s Performance 3 Years After Its Creation

4 November 2015 – Europa Press

Sareb was created in 2012 and has been granted a period of 15 years to manage and sell all of the assets transferred to it, almost 200,000 in total. It has until 2027 to liquidate them. (…).

Sareb’s President, Jaime Echegoyen, has acknowledged that the company’s progress is “quite slow” in terms of the divestment of assets, but he is confident that sales will be “greater” in the future. “The market is not ready and so, we have to wait”, he added.

Since its creation, Sareb has managed to reduce its volume of problem assets by €7,420 million, which in percentage terms represents 14.7% of its total assets.

Nevertheless, it is now waiting for the right moment to make further write-offs, according to the management team at the organisation.

Evolution of the portfolio

When it was created, the ‘bad bank’ received around 200,000 real estate and financial assets and 400,000 collaterals valued at €50,781 million.

Sareb stresses that its portfolio has transformed since then, with real estate assets gaining in weight, at the expense of financial assets. They explain that this is due to the transformation of the balance sheet, since the performing loans disappear from the portfolio once they have been fully repaid.

Sales to June 2015

During the first half of 2015, Sareb sold 5,345 units to retail clients, at a rate of 30 homes per day, compared with the average of 42 in 2014 as a whole. Moreover, it has seen renewed interest in land, whose sales have multiplied by 3.6x “although their financial impact is still insignificant” in terms of the company’s total revenues.

At 30 June, Sareb’s asset portfolio amounted to €43,361 million, of which 74% corresponded to loans and the remainder, 26% to real estate assets (primarily residential, land and tertiary property). (…).

Servicers

The company’s activity during the first half of the year has been hampered by the entry into operation of four new ‘servicers’ or real estate managers, which has involved the migration of a “huge” volume of loans and properties from the nine originating entities to the servicers’ platforms.

According to Echegoyen, the migration has involved the transfer of all of the information and documentation relating to 162,000 assets, which represents for example, four million documents and 325,000 keys.

Since it began its journey three years ago, Sareb has reduced its volume of problem assets by €7,420 million, and has also repaid €5,400 million of the €50,700 million debt it had to issue in order to acquire the portfolios of loans and properties from the banks affected by the crisis. (…). As such, the company has reduced its perimeter by 14.7% and cut down its debt by more than 11%.

During the same period, Sareb has generated revenues amounting to €10,500 million, has sold almost 30,000 properties to individuals and has managed around 25,000 proposals from companies. Moreover, it has carried out 25 large operations to sell wholesale asset portfolios, mainly loans, an activity that represents just 20% of its turnover.

“Sareb has demonstrated its ability to divest assets and generate revenues”, says Echegoyen, who added that the model “works” and that the company “has become an international point of reference”, as well as an “example” for other countries facing similar crisis situations.

Original story: Europa Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Owns One Third Of Spain’s Problem Banking Assets

17 September 2015 – Expansión

Sareb is playing a key role in the clean up of Spain’s financial sector. According to a study conducted by the consultancy RR de Acuña y Asociados, proof of that is the fact that it now owns one third of the sector’s problem assets.

The firm calculates that the Spanish banking system’s exposure to problem real estate assets amounts to €259,049 million in gross terms, plus a further €32,337 million in doubtful mortgage debt.

According to the study, which is based on the latest available figures, Sareb has loans and real estate assets worth €44,263 million, which in gross terms – before they were transferred – would have been worth €94,750 million.

RR de Acuña y Asociados also highlights that the transfer of assets from entities with public aid to Sareb meant that the first (entities) recorded extraordinary valuation adjustments of €12,700 million. The assets transferred by Bankia, Catalunya Banc, NCG Banco – now Abanca -, Banco de Valencia, BMN, Ceiss, Liberbank and Caja 3 had an initial appraisal value of €106,970 million. Excluding provisions, RR de Acuña y Asociados has identified a mismatch of €12,694 million between the transfer value to Sareb, which the entities must have borne themselves.

Forecast

Although the volume of problematic banking assets has stopped increasing over the last few years, the consultancy warns that it will take time for the entities to digest the leftover real estate assets: “Although the trend in the volume of doubtful assets is stable and is even recording some small downward variations, if we take into consideration the precarious financial situation of the property development and real estate construction companies, all indicators show that the level of exposed assets will continue to behave in the same way, for the next two years at least”, says the report. This means “a decrease in the volume of loans and an increase in the volume of real estate assets”.

As such, the real estate firm observes “an over-supply”, which means that it is “unlikely that house prices will begin to increase in the coming years”.

Meanwhile, yesterday, Sareb announced the repayment of a senior debt tranche amounting to €47.3 million after amending the asset transfer contract it holds with Catalunya Banc.

The asset transfer agreement between the two entities established that either of the parties could make adjustments to regulate the transfer completed in 2012, for a period of 36 months following its signing.

Original story: Expansión (by J.Z. and J.M.L.)

Translation: Carmel Drake