Novo Banco to sell €716 million of property for €390 million to US investment advisor

Novo Banco is sells a real estate portfolio via Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C., a US investment advisor.

The sale will yield €390 million for the bank, from properties with a book value of €716 million, according to a statement sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Novo Banco informs that it has entered into a promissory agreement with indirect entities held by funds managed by Anchorage Capital Group ... for the sale of a portfolio of real estate assets, known as 'Projeto Viriato'," the statement reads.

The portfolio valued at €716.7 million is made up of 8,726 residential properties, including parking lots, industrial, commercial properties and land, according to the bank that "estimates to receive €388.9 million."

Novo Banco anticipates that this transaction will be concluded by the end of the year.

This announcement comes one month after Novo Banco announced the start of the sale process for a loan portfolio valued at €700 million involving a call for non-binding offers from Anchorage Capital Partners, Bain Capital Credit and Arrow Global Group.

"This transaction represents another important step in the process of divesting non-strategic assets of the New Bank, continuing this strategy of focusing on the banking business," the statement read, confirming that Anchorage has been chosen as the buyer.

Based on the bank's half-yearly accounts, this operation represents 30% of the total property that the institution intends to sell. This is one of two operations that the bank plans to carry out this year in order to sort out its balance sheet.

Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C. is a New York-based registered investment adviser founded in 2003.

The firm “manages private investment funds across the credit, special situations and illiquid investment markets of North America and Europe using an active long and short basis, with particular focus on defaulted and leveraged issuers.”

See also: 'Taxpayers continue to fund privately owned Novo Banco'

Comments  

0 #9 Darcy 2018-10-15 09:48

Peter Booker, It looks like shovelling money into American pockets.

From what I have read over the weekend, the Americans have been requesting a loan from Saudi Arabia to the tune of 40 billion for structural funding for the United States of America... and so it goes on...

0 #8 nogin the nog 2018-10-11 17:12

Quoting dw:

It's the same model as the asset stripping of Greece. It's done for the benefit of international capital. The banks create the crash, the public bails them out, austerity is imposed on the public, public assets are sold off cheap to keep things afloat short term.

HMM.
Spot on pal, except the poor are now even poorer and the rich have got even richer..

+2 #7 dw 2018-10-11 15:09

It's the same model as the asset stripping of Greece. It's done for the benefit of international capital. The banks create the crash, the public bails them out, austerity is imposed on the public, public assets are sold off cheap to keep things afloat short term.

+1 #6 Mike Williams 2018-10-11 10:04

Full marks to Not Surprised for not being surprised. We must also factor in that, in the heady, anything goes pre-BES crash days many of the currently non-paying loans (NPL) taken out, will have been for substantially more than to buy a greatly inflated parking lot or disused commercial property.
So the residual (unsold) difference - now unanchored on a property - remains as an NPL with Novo Banco.

+2 #5 mj1 2018-10-11 09:48

so they sell something for half its value, and banks like to appear on tv giving out financial advice..."physician heal thy self"

+3 #4 AL 2018-10-11 09:32

And the theft continues!!

+7 #3 Not Suprised 2018-10-11 09:00

So that is €388.9 million the tax payer should not have to pay to Novo Banco surely ??? I'm convinced the sale is linked to a friend of a friend somewhere along the road ...

+1 #2 Peter Booker 2018-10-11 08:29

Where is the benefit to either Novo Banco or the taxpayer in Portugal? If these assets are saleable, why is the bank not employing Portuguese agents to sell them? Why does the bank not offer them on the market at half price? If they are not saleable, I suspect that Anchorage would not buy them.

It looks like shovelling money into American pockets.

+2 #1 nogin the nog 2018-10-11 00:01

hmm
Great deal for the buyer..

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