2023-06-05 04:00:12
Spanish banks continue to release real estate ballast. A strategy that began to gain strength in the midst of the economic and financial crisis, when entities were forced to record billions of foreclosed properties and unpaid loans on their balance sheets.
From 2008 to last year, the sector has removed 237,347 million euros, according to the consultancy Atlas Value Management, of which two thirds have been concentrated since 2017 (159,180 million euros). Only in 2022 the sector sold 16,456 million euros in toxic assets through 47 sales operations.
The company’s study highlights that the volume of transactions has grown by 70% compared to 2021, and that said number has set maximums in the historical series that began in 2008.
However, in terms of value, the record was in 2017, when banks sold more than 50,000 million in toxic assets. The amount transacted last year, yes, returns to pre-pandemic levels. Despite all these sales in these 15 years, the sector still has 63,699 million euros in its portfolio.
Major sellers of toxic assets
Santander, CaixaBank, Gescobro and BBVA have been the four entities that led the sale of portfolios during the past financial year, while since the health crisis began, The three entities that have ‘erased’ the most toxic assets from their balance sheets are Santander, CaixaBank and Sareb.
“Spanish banks continue with the trend of gradually reducing their real estate exposure. Taking into account the cumulative of the last 3 years, the divestment movements of toxic assets reach the value of 34,040 million euros. Considering the last 3 years of analysis, the The entity that has taken the most toxic assets off the balance sheet has been Banco Santander (7,178 million euros), followed by CaixaBank (5,229 million) and Sareb (3,500 million),” the study stresses. Between the three alone, they bring together 15,907 million in sales, which represents almost 47% of the total for the sector.
In the case of buyers, Intrum (3,560 million euros), Procobro (3,300 million) and Axactor (2,692 million) stand out, according to the data published by the consultancy.
Fourth EU country with the highest ratio of NPLs
Non-performing loans granted by credit institutions to companies and individuals remain low. In December it stood at 3.54%, compared to the 4.29% registered at the end of 2021, and its downward trend continues.
Nevertheless, Spain ranks fourth in Europe with the highest ratio of non-performing or doubtful loans (Non Performing Loans -NPLs-) only below Cyprus, Greece and Poland. In Italy, for example, it stands at 3.5%, while in Portugal it is around 3.2%; in France, 1.84% and in Germany and the Nordic countries it is below 1.5%. The euro area average stands at 2.5%.
This situation, they emphasize from Atlas Value Management, “leads financial entities to maintain their interest in the disinvestment of NPLs channeled through the sale of portfolios.”
Looking ahead to this year, the forecast is that toxic asset transactions will continue. “If during 2022 the banks already wanted to accelerate the sale of toxic assets to free up their balance, the fear that defaults will rise due to inflation and rising interest rates It will make this year 2023 even more entities want to package their toxic assets with the aim of liquidating them. A type of asset that is going to be a possible focus of attention this year are the ‘Reperforming Loans’, which have already begun to drain this past 2022”, he predicts. José Masip, partner of Financial Services and Real Estate at Atlas Value Management.
Only in the first half of the year, the consultancy believes that operations worth about 1,000 million euros will be closed and placed on the market. And for the second half of the year, the forecast is that the disinvestment will continue, “estimated at least the closing of some 24 transactions that are currently on the viewer for both NPLs and RPLs and REOs for an initial value of more than 4,300 million euros”, details the study.
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