Popular Sells 2 Doubtful Debt Portfolios To Apollo & Blackstone

13 January 2017 – Expansión

Banco Popular has sold two debt portfolios to the funds Apollo and Blackstone for the combined amount for more than €620 million, according to sources close to the operation.

Specifically, the entity has sold one €220 million debt portfolio, secured by hotel assets, to the Apollo group; and another to Blackstone, for more than €400 million, secured by property developments, primarily in the residential sector, containing more than 750 homes and a similar number of parking spaces and storerooms.

Although the portfolio sales is one of the sales channels established by the bank for the divestment of non-productive assets, it is the first time that Popular has sold any doubtful portfolios, which demonstrates a change in its strategy towards the management of non-productive assets, besides the traditional route of repossession and subsequent sale of the collateral, which has been applied in most cases to date.

The portfolios sold have been grouped into homogenous assets to simplify their analysis and optimise their price. The sales have been conducted at coverage levels in line with the objectives of Popular’s Business Plan.

In addition, another €100 million of refinanced assets under special surveillance have been sold with the aim of reducing the risk profile of the portfolio and freeing up capital.

During the first nine months of 2016, Popular maintained a steady pace of property sales, amounting to €1,554 million in total.

In its Business Plan for 2016-2018, Popular has set itself the target of reducing its non-productive assets by 45%. Specifically, the bank is aiming to reduce its non-productive asset balance by €15,000 million by 2018, placing its strategic focus on maximising the value of those assets.

Original story: Expansión

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