NPL&REO News

Bain, Cerberus and KKR compete for the largest NPL portfolio in Portugal ever

15 April, 2019

The sale process of Novo Banco’s “Projeto Nata 2”, a NPL portfolio with a gross nominal value of €3.3 billion, is now underway. Being the largest portfolio to ever be sold in Portugal, this project is attracting the interest of very-well known investors as Bain Capital, Cerberus and KKR, which are competing to take these problematic assets.

«Nata2» sales process is still in the very early stage, and is being coordinated by Alantra, the advisor of Novo Banco on the bidding process. The bank is also being assisted by KPMG consultants. The goal is to close the deal by the end of the third quarter of 2019.

Project Nata II comprises about 1,000 credits granted to companies which have been in default, and that had been given by the bank in the former BES period. About 30% of these contracts are secured, while the rest is unsecured. Its sale will help the Portuguese bank to reduce the bank’s Non-Performing Exposure (NPE) ratio to 12% by the end of the year.

Original Story: ECO | Eco News
Photo: Novo Banco
Edition: Prime Yield

Cerberus wants to take €350 million with Gescobro sale

22 March, 2019

Cerberus Capital Management has just put the sales signal over Gescobro, its credit recovery company in Spain. According to several sources listened by La Información, the North-American fund is completing the five-year disposal programme established when it acquired the credit recovery society from the Spanish fund Miura, back in 2014.

The same media added that Ceberus aim is to obtain around €350 million with the deal, although the final price will depend on how the sales process will go on. Alantra is advising Cerberus on the sales process, which is expected to last until the end of first semester, at least. The non-bidding offers phase is now open.

The sales value is based on the significant portfolio of bad credit acquired by the company over the last few years from the main Spanish financial entities, and whose gross asset value totals more than €8.6 billion. More precisely, Gescobro owns 12 unsecured credit portfolios with a gross book value of €8.3 billion and other two secured credit portfolio with a gross nominal value around €300 million.

Estimated recovery procedures pending amount to almost €600 million over the next 15 years.

Besides, Gescobro has “servicing” agreements with the majority of the main Spanish banks, being responsible to manage and recovery their non performing credits. In total, these business area means other €3.5 billion third party owned under management. Among these last ones, there is the recently acquired «Mauser Project».

Established in 1980, Gescobro is specialist in non-secured credit from SMEs.

Original Story: La información | Pepe Bravo
Photo: Cerberus online
Edition:Prime Yield

Bain Capital raises €1.25 billion fund to purchase European Bank Loans

18 March, 2019

Bain Capital’s credit arm raised 1.25 billion euros for a new fund to purchase European bank loans, according to information given to Bloomberg by a person familiar with the matter.

Bain Capital Credit’s new Special Situations Europe fund will target banks’ secured debt, non-performing loan portfolios and real estate assets, said the person, who asked not to be named because the information isn’t public. The money raised for the fund, the first dedicated to European soured loans at Bain, exceeded an initial target of €1 billion, the person said.

Bloomberg contacted an external spokeswoman for Bain, who declined to comment on the matter.

Last year alone, Bain acquired nine bank loan portfolios across Europe, in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, with a gross book value of more than €4 billion, revealed the same source. Bain Capital has $105 billion in asset under management, according to its website.

European lenders’ efforts to clean up their balance sheets since the global financial crisis have created a burgeoning market for trading non-performing loan exposures.

While more than a third below their peak, Italian lenders still had €222 euros of NPL on their books as of June, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers data. Greek lenders are also seeking to slash €89 billion of bad debt from their books, equivalent to about half of the country’s annual economic output.

Original Story:Bloomberg | Luca Casiraghi
Photo: Bain Capital
Edition:Prime Yield

Haya Real Estate launches the Marconi Project

4 March, 2019

Spanish servicer Haya Real Estate has just launched the Marconi Project: a set of non-performing loans (NPL) secured by real estate collateral owned by Sareb, for more than €188 million, the company informed.

This project is made up of loans that have around 1,445 registered properties under guarantee collected in 33 files. The average ticket for each of the loans offered is around €5.7 million, and 98% of the guarantees associated with these loans are already-completed homes, garages and store-rooms, while the remaining 2% is comprised of land, commercial premises and industrial buildings.

Most of these real estate collateral-backed loans are located mainly in Catalonia, Costa del Sol, Canary Islands and Madrid.

Project Marconi is divided into two phases, a non-biding phase and a biding phase, the first beginning at the end of February and ending in April with the submission of bidding offers and the closing of the transaction.

Haya Real Estate is a Spanish company leader in management of secured credit and real estate assets. Since 2016, the different sales processes launched by Haya allowed the divestment of more than €470 million.

Original Story: Haya | Kreab
Photo: Haya Real Estate
Edition:Prime Yield

Bain Capital buys the €850 million bad credit portfolio “Atlantic” from Caixa

12 February, 2019

After its 2017 debut, throughout buying a €500 million portfolio, the nonperforming asset manager Bain Capital keeps investing in Portugal, having now closed the acquisition of project “Atlantico”, with a gross book value of 850 million, from the Portuguese bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos.

In its Report and Consolidated Accounts from 1^stSemester 2018, the Portuguese public bank announced it would be selling the non-performing loans portfolio named “Atlântico”. In the occasion, Caixa’s president, Paulo Macedo, stated that the public offer had attracted several potential buyers. According to him, this transaction would allow Caixa’s NPL ratio to be under 10%.

After completing two transactions, Bain Capital admits its plans to keep investing in Portugal. «I assume we’re going to [buy more]. (…) We like the fact this is a small market, and, because of that, some of our major competitors don’t participate that frequently», Alon Avner, Bain Capital Credit’s Europe responsible, explains.

Original Story: ECO
Photo: Caixa Geral de Depósitos
Translation and Edition: Prime Yield

Santander sold Cerberus the €600 million “Project Tagus”

11 February, 2019

Santander Portugal closed the sale of the €600 million “Project Tagus” to an affiliate of US Cerberus Capital Management.

According to information gathered by the Portuguese news platform ECO, the transaction was closed in December 2018; having a positive impact of € 50 million for the bank’s results last year.

This portfolio comprises toxic assets belonging to former Popular Portugal bank, having sparked the interest of Apollo, Bain Capital and Arrow Global.

During the bank’s results presentation, CFO Manuel Preto explained that these real estate assets and loans became Santander Totta’s property with the integration of Popular Portugal at the end of 2017. «We tried to quickly alienate these assets, because we believe the bank’s management should be focused on granting new credit to the economy and not managing portfolios which are already adequately provisioned and which do not add much to the bank’s results», quotes the same source.

Original Story: Iberian Property | Ana Tavares
Photo: Santander
Edition:Prime Yield

Novo Banco puts its focus in NPL and Real Estate sales

7 February, 2019

Focused on cleaning its balance sheets and in the reduction of its NPL stock, Portuguese Novo Banco has advanced with the sale of a NPL portfolio worthing €1 billion and of other €500 million in real estate assets.

According the Jornal de Negócios, which quotes Debtwire, the Portuguese bank led by António Ramalho is already receiving proposals from financial advisores for the placement of the real estate portfolio in the market, which is expected to happen still in this quarter. In the race to advise this sale are well known names such as Alantra, Deloitte and PwC, among other. The sales process is expected to be completed by June.

So, after “Project Nata”, a NPL portfolio with a gross book value of €2.15 billion sold last December to a JV from KKR and LX Partners, the bank is now putting for sale the “Project Nata 2”, other NPL portfolio worthing €1 billion.

Also, in progress is the sale of “Project Viriato 2”, a €500 million real estate portfolio consisting mainly of commercial and industrial assets spread in the Lisbon region, writes the same publication, remembering that the disposal of “Projecto Viriato 1” generated a sales result of €388 million.

Original Story: Idealista | Idealista News
Photo: Novo Banco
Translation and Edition:Prime Yield