Tag: Project Coliseum

Cerberus Fights Off Blackstone to Acquire €9.1bn in Toxic Assets from Sabadell

19 July 2018 – El Confidencial

Banco Sabadell has chosen who is going to take over its toxic assets. In the end, after an express process that has seen the bank receive several binding offers, Cerberus has fought off competition from the other interested parties, including Blackstone, Lone Star and Oaktree. According to a relevant fact filed by the entity with Spain’s National Securities and Market Commission (CNMV), “the real estate assets involved in the operation have a combined gross book value of approximately €9.1 billion and a net book value of approximately €3.9 billion”.

They correspond to two of the four foreclosed property portfolios that Sabadell had put up for sale, “Challenger” and “Coliseum”, which will be transferred to one or more newly constituted companies in which Cerberus will own a direct or indirect stake with 80% of the capital and Banco Sabadell will retain the remaining 20% share.

As for Solvia Servicios Inmobiliarios, it will continue to be wholly owned by the Catalan entity and will also continue to provide integral management services for the real estate assets of both portfolios included in the operation “on an exclusive basis”, according to the statement.

Once the operation, which is subject to the corresponding authorisations, has been closed, control over the real estate assets will be transferred and, therefore, those assets will be deconsolidated from the bank’s balance sheet. In this way, according to explanations from Sabadell, the sale “contributes positively to improving the group’s profitability, although it will require the recognition of additional provisions with a net impact of approximately €92 million”, which will improve the Catalan entity’s Tier 1 capital ratio by around 13 basis points.

The operation forms part of a restructuring plan designed by the entity at the end of 2017, through which it is seeking to remove €12 billion in toxic assets from its balance sheet. Sabadell closed last year with gross foreclosed assets amounting to €8.023 billion and non-performing loans amounting to €5.695 billion, according to real estate exposure data filed with the CNMV.

The other two portfolios that the entity wanted to divest are known as Project Galerna, containing €900 million in non-performing loans, which was acquired by the Norwegian firm Axactor, and Project Makalu, with €2.5 billion from the former CAM. With their sale, the entity will complete its real estate clean-up, just like Santander and BBVA have already done.

Original story: El Confidencial (by María Igartua)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Finalises Sale of €5bn in Real Estate Assets to Cerberus

12 July 2018 – Voz Pópuli

Banco Sabadell is finalising the largest real estate divestment in its history. The entity chaired by Josep Oliu (pictured below) is negotiating with Cerberus to close the sale of Project Challenger, a package of real estate assets worth around €5 billion, according to financial sources consulted by Voz Pópuli. Sources at Sabadell declined to comment.

Cerberus is thought to be negotiating a payment of around €2 billion, according to the same sources. The agreement could be signed within the next few days. The bank has been holding exclusive negotiations for several days with the fund chaired by John Snow and led in Spain by Manuel González Cid, although it has not ruled out the possibility of other candidates also presenting offers, including Lone Star and Bain Capital.

Project Challenger comprises properties – homes, developments and land – that Sabadell foreclosed during the crisis. The assets are not covered by the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD), and so their sale is relatively simple, provided the negotiations do not run aground in the coming days.

Goodbye to real estate

In addition to Project Challenger, Sabadell has launched three other operations in the last few months to free up its balance sheet of toxic assets. It has already closed one of those deals: Project Galerna, which the bank sold to Axactor, as revealed by this newspaper.

In addition to Galerna, Sabadell has Project Makalu underway, with €2.4 billion in problem loans; and Project Coliseum, with €2.5 billion in foreclosed assets. These three portfolios are covered by the Asset Protection Scheme (EPA), which the bank received in exchange for taking over CAM. For this reason, their sales depend on the negotiations currently underway with FGD.

Sabadell is expected to make a decision regarding the future of its real estate over the coming weeks to reveal a radically different image of the bank at the presentation of its half-year results, which will take place at the end of this month.

For Cerberus, this agreement would see it consolidate its position as one of the largest funds with real estate assets in Spain, alongside Blackstone – which took over the property of Popular and Catalunya Banc – and Lone Star, which signed a billion euro agreement recently with CaixaBank.

Meanwhile, in Spain, Cerberus controls the platform Haya Real Estate, which it has tried to list on the stock market, albeit unsuccessfully; and it is close to signing the acquisition of Anida and BBVA’s property, pending approval from the FGD.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake