Tag: Project Pirene

Bain Capital Raises €2,770M & Sets Its Sights On Spain

8 August 2016 – Expansión

Bain Capital wants to become one of the largest buyers of real estate in Spain. On Thursday, the US fund announced that it has completed the acquisition of three asset portfolios from Spanish banks, worth €1,146 million, over the last few months. The sellers are Cajamar, Sabadell and Bankia in three separate deals.

The acquisitions have been made through the fund’s Bain Capital Credit business unit, known until now as Sankaty.

And as if that weren’t enough, in the last few days, the US investor has completed the creation of a new fund in the USA worth $3,100 million (€2,769 million) for distressed investments (assets close to bankruptcy) and assets in special situations, according to Bloomberg.

“We see potential for making new investments in the Iberian Peninsula, especially in the real estate and overdue loan markets”, said Fabio Longo, CEO and Head of the real estate and overdue loan business in Europe at Bain Capital Credit. “We are excited about the opportunity to consolidate our position in the market for non-performing real estate assets in Spain through these investments”, added Alon Avner, CEO and Head of Bain Capital Credit’s European business.

Individual transactions

Of the three portfolios purchased, the largest was bought from Cajamar, containing €511 million of overdue syndicated and bilateral loans, granted primarily to real estate developers in different phases of bankruptcy. This deal, known as Project Baracoa, was the first major competitive sale of loans by a Spanish entity.

In addition, Bain Capital Credit acquired a portfolio of loans with a nominal value of €415 million from Sabadell, comprising overdue loans to property developers, mainly secured by residential and tertiary assets. This operation was known in the market as Project Pirene.

The most recent purchase by the US fund in Spain involved the Project Lane portfolio, comprising €220 million of foreclosed assets sold by Bankia. This was the first operation of its kind carried out by the nationalised group after the failed sale of Project Big Bang at the end of last year, through which it had wanted to sell all of the homes, developments and land on its balance sheet. In the end, Bankia was unable to reach an agreement with the investor who had expressed the most interest, Cerberus.

For all of these operations, Bain Capital has been advised by the asset managers Copernicus, HipoGes and Altamira; the consultancy firms Aura REE and CBRE; and the lawyers J&A Garrigues and Cuatrecasas.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Deutsche Buys €400M Developer Loan Portfolio From Bankia

4 July 2016 – Expansión

Deutsche Bank has reaffirmed its commitment to the Spanish real estate market despite instability in the markets caused by Brexit. Last week, funds from the German entity sealed the acquisition of almost €400 million in doubtful property developer loans from Bankia.

This is the second transaction of its kind that Deutsche Bank has signed with Bankia in just six months. At the end of 2015, it acquired just over €600 million in unpaid company loans, backed by real estate collateral. In this way, the German bank became the owner of at least one hundred loans linked to property that had originated on Bankia’s balance sheet.

Sources in the market estimate that Deutsche Bank could have paid just under €150 million for this latest operation, known as Project Ocean.

With these types of portfolios, funds are typically looking for loans that give them relatively easy access to real estate collateral, either through legal foreclosures or agreements with the borrowers.

These deals allow the vendor entities to reduce their default rates; lower their risk-weighted assets; generate gains, in some cases; and focus their resources on granting new, profitable, loans.

In fact, Bankia is close to completing another major divestment within the next few days, with the transfer of 2,500 flats to the fund Sankaty, the subsidiary of the US giant Bain Capital. These properties have been valued at between €300 million and €400 million.

A new star

This investor has become the largest purchaser of problem assets from the banks (in Spain) in 2016. In this way, in addition to Bankia’s portfolio, Sankaty signed another two acquisitions last week: Project Pirene, comprising €460 million in problem assets linked to property developers, from Sabadell; and Project Baracoa, containing 2,400 loans to bankrupt companies, worth €530 million, from Cajamar.

Sector sources say that these operations prove that investors are still interested in Spain, even through Brexit has made the financing of these purchases more difficult.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell & Bankia Finalise RE Portfolio Sales To Sankaty

29 June 2016 – Expansión

Spanish banks and international funds are negotiating against the clock as they seek to close operations worth hundreds of millions of euros within the next few days. Entities have offers on the table for real estate assets worth almost €4,000 million. And some of them are expected to bear fruit today or tomorrow, so that they can be accounted for in the half-year results.

The negotiations are even more frantic than in previous years due to the slowdown caused by the electoral calendar, which caused opportunistic funds to be prudent with their offers. One of the most influential factors was the fear that Podemos would enjoy electoral success.

Now that the uncertainty (surrounding Podemos) has been resolved, Sabadell and Bankia have been particularly agile in reaching agreements.

Yesterday, the Catalan entity sold a portfolio containing €460 million of problem assets linked to property developers, as part of Project Pirene. The buyer is the fund Sankaty Advisors, a subsidiary of the US giant Bain Capital. Sources in the market estimate that the investor paid Sabadell between €150 and €200 million for these assets.

Dominant investors

Sankaty’s interest in Spain has not been limited to that portfolio, given that it is close to securing another deal that has attracted significant interest from other large international investors: Project Lane, sold by Bankia, comprising 2,500 homes worth €400 million. This is the first portfolio to emerge from the carved up Project Big Bang; the entity had wanted to sell all of its foreclosed assets together, but that plan was suspended at the end of last year. Sources expect to know whether this operation will go ahead within the next few days.

The sale of the other two asset portfolios that Bankia has on the market are proceeding more slowly: one contains non-performing mortgages – Project Tizona – worth €520 million; and the other contains non-performing property developer loans – Project Ocean – amounting to €400 million.

Sankaty expects the recovery of the Spanish real estate sector to go beyond Sabadell and Bankia’s portfolios, as indicated by the fact that it is one of the main favourites to acquire Project Baracoa, from Cajamar. That will be the first sale of bankrupt loans by a Spanish bank. In total, the rural savings bank is looking to get rid of €800 million of these types of loans, which account for 70% of all of its bankrupt assets. 85% of them are secured by real estate collateral.

Another operation that is generating significant interest is Project Carlit, launched by CaixaBank, through which the Catalan group wants to transfer €790 million of doubtful loans to property developers. The bid is in its final phase with two key favourites in the running: Cerberus, which according to sources consulted is “putting all of its eggs into one basket”; and the alliance between Goldman Sachs and TPG, two US investors who have joined forces in the past. The US fund D. E. Shaw is also through to the final round, but it has not participated in any operations in Spain for a long time and the market considers that it is less likely to win the portfolio.

CaixaBank has another major operation underway: Project Sun, through which it wants to sell 155 hotel assets worth almost €1,000 million.

Another one of the most active entities is Abanca, which recently sold €1,400 million in non-performing loans to EOS Spain and which will be negotiating the sale of €400 million property developer loans over the next few weeks.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Sells €1,000M NPL Portfolio To Grove & Lindorff

9 May 2016 – Expansión

Banco Sabadell is accelerating the clean up of its balance sheet / Over the last three years, the bank has sold non-performing debt portfolios worth more than €5,300 million.

Banco Sabadell is establishing itself as one of the most active entities in the sale of large debt portfolios, as it continues to clean up its balance sheet. The bank chaired by Josep Oliu has just closed its first major operation of the year, known as Project Corus, involving the sale of €1,000 million in non-performing loans, which it has already fully provisioned. This is the largest portfolio that Sabadell has brought onto the market to date; none of its previous operations have exceeded €800 million.

The portfolio has been acquired by a consortium comprising Grove Capital Management and Lindorff, which have paid around 5% of the global amount of the loans acquired, in other words, around €50 million. This figure will be recorded as pure profit in Sabadell’s income statement.

The Corus portfolio comprises unsecured doubtful loans relating to consumer debt and credit cards. Grove has acquired €800 million of the portfolio, which it will now manage to try to recover the maximum amount possible. The fund is owned by Blenheim Chalcot and Encore Capital Group – one of the largest collection companies in the world – at the end of 2015, it bought another NPL portfolio, containing €400 million in doubtful debts, from Santander.

Background

Meanwhile, the Norwegian company Lindorff has purchased the remaining €200 million of the Corus portfolio. This fund has also just acquired 94% of the real estate company Aktua, which manages homes and debt on behalf of BMN, Ibercaja and Santander.

It is not the first time that Lindorff has acquired assets from Sabadell. In 2014, the company acquired the bank’s debt recovery division for €162 million, and incorporated the workforce into its own business.

Over the last three years, the bank led by Jaume Guardiola has transferred debt portfolios exceeding €5,300 million to clean up its balance sheet. (…).

By amount, Project Corus is the largest portfolio that Sabadell has put up for sale to date, but it will soon be overtaken by Normandy, a portfolio containing €1,700 million of doubtful real estate loans that the bank is currently evaluating.

Meanwhile, Sabadell has already put another operation on the market, known as Pirene and advised by KPMG, containing €460 million of problem assets linked to property developers.

Original story: Expansión (by Sergi Saborit)

Translation: Carmel Drake