Sareb sells €847m of loans

Spanish “bad bank” Sareb sold a number of real estate loan portfolios with a face value of €847m in the final weeks of 2014.

Two real estate loan books including the €259m Agatha portfolio and the €140m Olivia portfolio have been sold to investors including London-based private debt firm Hayfin, writes Real Estate Capital’s sister publication PDI.

A consortium led by Hayfin acquired 38 performing loans from the Agatha portfolio with a par value of €194m. The sub-portfolio is secured by 29 rented apartment blocks primarily located in Madrid. The other part of the portfolio, comprised of 10 rented housing developments also located in Madrid with par value €65m, was acquired by investment firm D.E. Shaw.

Hayfin also purchased the Olivia portfolio comprised of seven performing loans with par value of €140m and secured by residential and retail properties located in the province of Valencia.

A third portfolio, known as Meridian, with par value of €133m was also sold to Cerberus. The book is secured by 26 hotel properties in Spain, comprised of more than 2,700 income-producing rooms. The properties are located in six different regions, with the largest number of properties in the provinces of Valencia, Barcelona, Alicante, Almeria and Cadiz.

As well as the loan disposals, funds managed by Blackstone have bought four office buildings in Madrid from Sareb with a par value estimated to be more than €81m. The properties were held in a bank asset fund known as Corona and were entirely owned by Sareb. All properties are located in the northern area of Madrid and have a total area of around 40,000 sq m with an average occupancy rate of more than 90%.

Sareb is also in the process of finalising the sales project known as Kaplan, through which it plans to dispose of performing and non-performing loans linked to small and medium-sized developers with par value of €234m. The majority of these loans are secured by residential and land assets.