Tag: unsecured loans

Debt Recovery Firm KRUK Prepares to Make its Real Estate Debut

18 March 2019 – Bolsa Mania

The debt recovery firm KRUK is getting ready to enter the real estate market. The company, which has already acquired debt portfolios in other segments (e.g. consumer loans) from entities such as Bankia and Unicaja, now wants to start buying real estate-related debt portfolios from the banks, servicers and Sareb.

Until now, the group has specialised in the unsecured segment in Spain. Last year, it acquired a portfolio of doubtful consumer loans from Bankia and a year earlier, it did the same with another similar portfolio from Unicaja. A few months ago, it purchased another from Carrefour’s financial arm.

Further afield, the company currently has a presence in Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Italy and Spain, with the last two markets representing its priorities for the time being.

Original story: Bolsa Mania (by Elena Lozano)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Sareb Seeks Partner(s) to Create Joint Venture With NPLs Worth €10bn

20 March 2018 – Expansión

Sareb has decided to emulate the large financial institutions and find a partner to help it digest its portfolio of foreclosed assets. The entity chaired by Jaime Echegoyen (pictured below) has decided to create a vehicle into which it will place loans with real estate guarantees (known as NPLs) and in which it will retain a minority stake.

Into this joint company, Sareb will place loans with a gross value of €10 billion, although the definitive figure has not been finalised yet, explain sources in the sector. It would be the largest sale ever made by the company that was itself created with assets proceeding from the intervened banks, and loans with all different kinds of real estate guarantees would be included: from land to tertiary assets. Sareb’s objective is to open up this new company to one or more financial partners and it has engaged the firms EY and CBRE to lead the negotiations. The process is still in a preliminary analysis phase, but the aim is to close it during the second half of the year or at the beginning of 2019.

Contacts

In making their preliminary contacts, the consultancy firms have approached the main international funds and managers with investments in the Spanish real estate sector to gauge their possible interest in this portfolio, which will initially be called Project Ebro. Once investors have confirmed their interest in the vehicle, thought will be given to defining how the alliance will be forged, say sources in the sector. Possible interested parties include investment giants such as Cerberus, Bain Capital, Blackstone, Apollo, Kennedy Wilson and Goldman Sachs. With Project Ebro, Sareb would be following in the footsteps of entities like Santander, which has reached an agreement with Blackstone to create the company Quasar, with real estate assets proceeding from its purchase of Popular.

In that case, the US fund owns a 51% stake, whilst Santander retains 49% of the shares.

This is not the only loan portfolio that Sareb currently has up for sale. The company has three other processes underway, although Ebro, given its size, is the star project. In this regard, it has engaged Arcano to sell the Nora portfolio, comprising non-performing loans (NPL) backed by residential collateral worth around €400 million; the Vilasoa portfolio, which includes €300 million in loans secured by land; and project Dune, a portfolio that has been relaunched in 2018 comprising €2.6 billion in unsecured loans. In that case, Sareb has engaged PwC to coordinate the sale.

These processes are happening in parallel to the search for a partner to strengthen its property development business. In that case, Sareb is holding talks with large real estate companies and funds with activity in the residential sector with the aim of working together on the development of buildable land and construction projects in progress.

In total, that portfolio is worth around €800 million and Sareb would contribute those assets to a company in which its partner would hold a majority stake.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Deutsche Bank: BBVA & Unicaja Cut Their Toxic Assets By 15% In 2017

14 November 2017 – Expansión

Deutsche Bank report / Sales to institutional investors of non-performing loans and properties allowed BBVA to reduce its stock by €4,589 million. Meanwhile, Unicaja has decreased its load by €818 million.

The clean up of the banks’ balance sheets is picking up speed thanks to the increasingly common sales of large property portfolios to specialist funds.

Between January and September, the average decrease in the stock of the large banks amounted to 6%; moreover, that figure reached 15% in the case of BBVA España. The next entity in the ranking was Unicaja, with a decrease of 14%.

During the third quarter, Santander España distorted the statistics with the sale of 51% of Popular’s toxic assets (€30,000 million) to Blackstone.

Project Jaipur

BBVA has closed several institutional sales in recent months. One of them, Project Jaipur, was sold to Cerberus, the fund with which it is now negotiating a macro-operation, which would include the sale of its real estate platform Anida. That portfolio comprises loans to property developers backed by real estate guarantees and has a gross nominal value of €600 million.

In February, BBVA sold a batch of 3,500 properties to the fund Blackstone. Another one of the representative operations of the year was the sale of 14 office buildings to Oaktree for €200 million.

Unicaja has sold several plots of land to various real estate developers in recent months. “Unlike in other quarters, during the third quarter of the year, most of the reduction in the banks’ problem assets came from the sale of foreclosed properties, despite the substantial decrease in activity in August”, says the recent report from Deutsche Bank.

Between June and September, CaixaBank was the most active entity, with sales worth €380 million.

The report cites several factors to explain the intensification of this real estate clean up. The first is the increase in the coverage ratio of these toxic assets on the banks’ balance sheets. “The volume of sales is directly linked to the coverage ratio”, it says.

The second is that many of these sales are generating capital gains. According to the data compiled by Deutsche Bank, Unicaja made €40 million in the third quarter and CaixaBank and Sabadell earned €6 million and €7 million, respectively. “These gains will allow them to accelerate future sales”, says the report.

Final quarter

The last quarter of the year tends to be the strongest for these types of operations. Sareb has put a package of doubtful loans up for sale, the vast majority of which are unsecured, for €2,600 million. “We expect to see an additional effort from the banking institutions to reduce the stock at year end. Having said that, the political uncertainty in Cataluna and the upcoming elections may affect prices and/or cause delays in institutional sales”, says Deutsche Bank, which forecasts further stock decreases of 15% in 2018 and 2019. According to its data, CaixaBank, Santander and BBVA are the banks with the highest volume of toxic assets. Since 2015, BBVA has decreased its real estate balance by 27% and Unicaja by 24%.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Lander)

Translation: Carmel Drake

How Will Santander Get Rid Of Popular’s RE Assets?

13 June 2017 – Expansión

Double approach / The bank will put some large portfolios on the market to sell them to opportunistic funds and will also transfer some of the assets to Metrovacesa, in which Santander is the majority shareholder. 

Last year, the real estate nightmare stopped causing headaches for Santander. The risk accounted for just 2% of the balance sheet of its Spanish subsidiary (…). Between 2012 and March 2017, its volume of damaged assets fell by 60% in net terms, according to its own numbers.

However, the arrival of a block of RE exposures worth €36,800 million from Popular will force its managers to roll their sleeves up once again. Nevertheless, this is happening at a point in the real estate cycle that, a priori, is much more favourable.

Santander’s intention is to cut Popular’s toxic assets in half within a year and a half, with the aim of reducing the balance to an immaterial amount within three years.

Santander will go to the market over the next few months to sell significant batches of assets to opportunistic funds that are dedicated to this business. These divestments tend to be made at a loss because the funds pay low prices. Santander starred in one of the fifteen large operations closed in 2016, with its sale of a portfolio to Grove and Lindorff. (…).

Popular did not have this solution available to it because of the low provisioning level that it had covering these assets. As a result, any such operation would have made the losses in its income statement even worse. In fact, during the whole crisis, Popular only made public two transactions, which together amounted to €621 million. The only channel that it could afford to use was retail.

Digestion

By contrast, Santander can afford to allow these divestments. One of the objectives of the €7,000 million macro-capital increase that it is going to undertake is precisely to increase the level of provisions for Popular from 45% to 67%. The average level in the sector stands at 52%. In the case of non-performing loans, the coverage will jump from 55% to 75%.

These future sales will lead to an intensification of this market, which last year moved €15,600 million, according to data compiled by KPMG. Since the start of the crisis, total divestments through this channel amount to almost €100,000 million.

Metrovacesa

Santander has another door open for providing a rapid exit to Popular’s real estate assets and its called Metrovacesa. Santander is the property developer’s largest shareholder, with 72% of the capital, in addition to Popular’s stake.

Ana Botín’s team already used this channel last year to transfer risks and it is likely that it will use it again with Popular, especially for its land. Santander also owns a stake in the Socimi Testa Residencial, which is scheduled to debut on the stock market in 2018. That company owns 8,064 rental homes, which could be supplemented with the buildings owned Popular that are most susceptible to rent. (…)

One of the first decisions taken by Ana Botín following the purchase of Popular has been to appoint Javier García Carranza, the Head of Santander’s Real Estate Restructuring area, to Popular’s new Board of Directors.

After several years of high provisions to cover the real estate assets, the large entities consider that the coverage level is now sufficient. The vast majority of the current costs are maintenance related. In other words, they stem from the payment of municipal taxes, neighbourhood costs, etc. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by R.Lander and R.Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s Banks Have €6,200M In Toxic Assets Up For Sale

25 April 2017 – El Mundo

Spain’s banks want to take advantage of the improving conditions in the real estate market to accelerate the clean up of the non-performing assets that are still weighing down on their balance sheets, almost 10 years after the burst of the bubble. The main entities currently have €6,200 million in toxic assets of all kind up for sale, including land, doubtful loans, hard to recover loans, homes, hotels, industrial warehouses…

Spain’s banks have been working on this process for at least five years, and with particular intensity for the last three. Bankia, for example, has sold €10,000 million since 2013 and CaixaBank has sold €5,000 million in the last two years. The most recent major operation was closed by Banco Sabadell, in January, for €950 million.

Now, in addition to Banco Popular, which has a large volume of toxic assets still to clean up, entities such as Ibercaja, BBVA, CaixaBank and Bankia are offering investment funds assets worth thousands of millions of euros, because they prefer to sell them at a loss, than maintain them on their balance sheets. The entities are accepting losses to improve their default ratios and doubtful client figures. For the funds, the aim is to take advantage of the discounts on offer to obtain very high returns from the subsequent recovery or resale of the underlying assets. (…).

The €6,200 million currently up for sale on this wholesale market, which has a low profile despite its volume, increases to €7,800 million if we take into account the operations completed during the month of January by Banco Sabadell, BBVA, Deutsche Bank and Bankia.

Based on the operations currently on the market, Ibercaja, BBVA and Sareb (…) are the entities with the largest volume of assets up for sale. The bank chaired by Francisco González is planning to conduct a significant cleanup of its balance sheet in 2017 and is currently offering assets and secured and unsecured loans to small developers amounting to €860 million. During the first quarter of 2017, it sold 14 buildings in Cataluña and Valencia and a portfolio containing 3,500 properties to the fund Blackstone.

Meanwhile, last year, CaixaBank completed the sale of two portfolios to funds such as Apollo and DE Shaw, amounting to €1,400 million, and this year it has a portfolio of non-performing loans to property developers, amounting to €600 million. The default rate of the Catalan bank has decreased from 11% at the peak of the crisis to 6.9% now and its doubtful clients have decreased by 47% since 2013.

Nevertheless, the market expects more supply to come onto the market. The European Central Bank (ECB) is putting pressure on the entities to conduct a comprehensive clean-up in order to dispel the myths regarding how profitable they are. Bank of America Merrill Lynch considers that the volume of foreclosed assets held by the main banks still exceeds €34,000 million and that more than €10,000 million still needs to be sold in terms of land alone, which puts the sector’s capacity to clean itself up in real doubt.

The strategy that Banco Popular is following in this regard, which has to get rid of at least €16,000 million, is considered definitive. The prices that it sets and the outcome of its crisis may influence the plans of the other entities, especially those of the smallest, unlisted firms. (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by César Urrutia)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Fortress Finalises Its Withdrawal From Spain

17 November 2015 – Expansión

Strategy / The US fund will close the sale of Paratus to Elliott and Cabot Financial this week. It will also complete the ERE affecting more than 50% of Lico Leasing’s workforce.

The opportunistic fund Fortress is continuing its withdrawal from the Spanish financial sector. The US investor is finalising the sale of one of its financial businesses in the country, namely, Paratus, a platform that specialises in the management of problematic banking assets, which Fortress has controlled since 2009.

According to several financial sources, the sale of Paratus will be signed this week with the fund Elliott Advisors and the British group Cabot Credit Management Group, owned by JC Flowers and Encore Capital, taking ownership.

Each of the investors will take over a different part of Paratus’ business. Elliott is most interested in the real estate division and in the team. At the beginning of the sales process – known as Project Coast and advised by N+1 – Paratus held loans amounting to €152 million, secured by 866 properties; 500 homes worth just over €100 million; and a team comprising 43 professionals.

Meanwhile, Cabot is interested in acquiring the unsecured loans, which Fortress is selling for €426 million. The British group is looking to build upon its recent entry into the Spanish market, following its purchase of the Gesif platform from Elliott.

In addition to this possible sale, Fortress is also reducing its exposure to the Spanish financial sector by conducting an ERE at Lico Leasing. At the end of 2014, this subsidiary of Fortress had 130 employees. Through the restructuring, the fund has got rid of the commercial divisions of Lico Leasing, its other major financial business in Spain, which it acquired from the savings banks just one year ago; this means that it will no longer capture any new loans.

Complex operation

Fortress will continue to manage Lico Leasing’s existing portfolio and will continue to operate Geslico, its subsidiary that specialises in problem loans. That company recently integrated two of Fortress’s other companies in Spain: Auxiliar de Servicios y Cobros and Gestión de Activos de Aragón.

Fortress’s commitment to Lico Leasing was cut short due to the time required for its approval – almost two years – and by the re-opening of the credit tap by banks following the measures introduced by the ECB.

The US fund will continue with its other activities in Spain, by providing financing to companies and the real estate market.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Fortress Puts Its ‘Paratus’ Platform Up For Sale

29 May 2015 – Expansión

Project Coast / Fortress wants to dispose of one of its platforms, with 40 employees and a portfoliol of loans and homes amounting to €700 million.

(Photo: Michael Novogratz, Director at Fortress Investent Group)

Fortress, one of the first opportunistic funds to arrive in Spain has put up the ‘for sale’ sign over part of its business in Spain. The US fund has announced the disposal of its distressed debt management platform and of a portfolio of loans and homes amounting to almost €700 million.

The possible sale comes at a time when international investors are reviewing their strategies in Spain following the results of the regional and local elections. Even so, sources close to the transaction indicate that this deal was launched long before the election results were announced and that the fund remains firm in its commitment to Spain.

The investor has taken the decision after it completed the purchase of Lico Leasing from savings banks last year, with 500 employees and assets worth €600 million.

Former GMAC

Following this purchase, Fortress wants to sell its Paratus platform. The firm originated from General Motor’s former financing arm, GMAC. After being rescued by the US Government in 2008, GMAC – currently known as Ally Financial – sold its European business to Fortress, which represented the fund’s first foray into Spain. The fund started to purchase non-performing loan portfolios in Spain in 2009, and ended up managing a portfolio amounting to €4,000 million.

The opportunistic fund has engaged N+1 to advise on the sale of Paratus; several weeks ago the consultancy firm distributed information to potential investors regarding the so-called Project Coast. Following the first phase of the process, this week N+1 will announce which funds and platforms will go through to the final phase, which is expected to close at the beginning of July.

According to sources in the financial sector, this transaction is primarily targeted at overseas funds that want to establish a base in Spain. Investors such as Elliot – with Gesif -, D.E. Shaw – with Multigestión – and Cerberus – with Gescobro – have closed similar deals in recent years.

According to the information distributed by N+1, Paratus currently manages four asset portfolios and has two service contracts, which in total correspond to assets under management amounting to almost €1,000 million. The sale also includes the current team, comprising 43 professionals.

Almost €700 million of the loans and homes managed by Paratus will be transferred into the hands of the buyer. Of those, €426 million are unsecured loans without any kind of collateral; €152 million are loans secured by 866 properties; and another 500 homes are worth just over €100 million. Most of the real estate exposure is located in Cataluña, Andalucía and Valencia.

New strategy

Following this sale, Fortress will focus its strategy in Spain on Lico Leasing and on its subsidiary Geslico – where it recently undertook an ERE –, which render similar services to those offered by Paratus. Through Lico, the fund has a banking licence as a financial credit establishment, which was granted by the Bank of Spain in December 2014.

Fortress has altered its strategy in Spain after its failed attempts to buy a real estate subsidiary, such as Altamira and Aliseda, and to enter Sareb’s capital.

Following those endeavours, it completed its largest purchase in Spain, by purchasing debt in Realia amounting to €440 million, and since then, it has acquired small real estate portfolios and participated in the financing of indebted companies.

The fund in Spain is led by the banker José María Cava, founder of Gladia Capital and a former director of BBVA.

Original story: Expansión (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bankia And BMN Both Put NPL Portfolios Up For Sale

27 March 2015 – Expansión

Divestments / Bankia and BMN are seeking to replicate the transaction completed by Catalunya Banc in 2014 on a smaller scale. The market expects a “boom” in these sales in 2015.

After two years divesting shareholdings and bad debts, Bankia considers that the time has come for it to transfer some of the non-performing mortgages that it deems to be unrecoverable. The entity led by José Ignacio Goirigolzarri has put a portfolio amounting to €1,300 million up for sale, of which more than €900 million relate to unpaid mortgages. BMN has also put a similar package of loans up for sale, amounting to €160 million, of which €52 million relate to mortgages.

Investors have received these operations with a great deal of anticipation, because since Catalunya Banc transferred a portfolio of problem mortgages amounting to €6,500 million to Blackstone last summer, no other entity had decided to follow suit.

After the step taken by Bankia and BMN, a number of entities are expected to join the band wagon and put some of their real estate loans to individuals up for sale.

Change of course

Until now, the bank had been reluctant to sell mortgages to opportunistic funds for reputational risk reasons. To avoid this, Bankia and BMN have decided to exclude loans relating to subsidised and social housing (from their portfolios). Moreover, sources in the financial sector explain that overseas funds may offer more alternatives for non-performing loans than the banks, since they purchase the loans at a discount and so can offer discounts themselves. These investors, just like the banks, must comply with the Code of Good Practice developed by the (Ministry of) Economy in 2012.

The sale launched by Bankia forms part of Project Wind, advised by KPMG . In total, the portfolio contains overdue loans amounting to €1,300 million, which are split into three sub-portfolios: mortgages; loans to SMEs and real estate developers, secured by properties, worth €180 million; and unsecured loans amounting to €210 million.

The mortgage portfolio comprises 4,300 loans, with an average value of €214,000. Most of the mortgages were granted to purchase property in Cataluña (32%), Madrid (25%) and Valencia (18%). Furthermore, 83% of the 4,300 non-performing loans are involved in judicial proceedings.

These types of transactions allow banks to remove non-performing assets from their balance sheets, release provisions and devote new resources to new more profitable activities.

Foreign funds will monitor this transaction very closely, especially those who have purchased a real estate platform in recent years: Cerberus (Haya Real Estate), Apollo (Altamira), Centerbridge (Aktua), TPG (Servihabitat), Blackstone (Catalunya Caixa Inmobiliaria) and Värde Partners y Kennedy Wilson (Aliseda). Having purchased the real estate management platforms in 2013, these investors are now keen to nurture (feed) them with their own assets, and whereby obtain profitability from their investments.

In addition to this transaction, Bankia has two other deals in the pipeline: the sale of hotel loans – Project Castle – for which it has received non-binding offers of between €200 million and €300 million; and the transfer of syndicated and bilateral loans amounting to €500 million – Project Commander – which Deloitte is advising.

On a smaller scale

In the meantime, BMN has put a similar portfolio up for sale to that offered by Bankia as part of Project Wind. It amounts to €160 million, of which one third are unpaid mortgages. The sale of this portfolio, known as Project Pampa, is being managed by N+1. Almost all of the 300 mortgages included in this portfolio are secured by properties in Cataluña.

BMN hopes to close the sale of its portfolio by the end of May. In the case of Bankia, the transfer process may last until the middle of the year.

Original story: Expansión (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake