Greek lender Alpha Bank confirmed on Thursday that it is selling the Jupiter non-performing loan portfolio to US group Apollo Global Management, as reported by PropertyEU in mid November.
Apollo and joint venture partner IFC have agreed to pay €337 mln for the package, or 33.6 cents on the dollar for the secured loans which have a gross book asset value of €1 bn and close to fair value (€51 mln) for €56 mln worth of repossessed assets included in the portfolio.
Apollo emerged ahead of four other bidders - Fortress Investment Group, Lone Star Funds, Pimco and Centerbridge Partners – in the race to acquire the loans which are securitised against some 1,700 assets with over a third (36%) of hotel properties, a quarter of residential assets, and 23% of commercial properties.
The NPL deal - Greece’s second major property-backed loan sale this year – is expected to close before the end of the year, while the sale of the repossessed assets will close during 2019.
Alpha Bank said in a statement that the transaction will have a positive impact in terms of capital and liquidity and is fully consistent with its strategy ‘to reduce non-performing exposures and to continue the restoration of its balance sheet’.
Citigroup Global Markets acted as the bank’s sole financial adviser.
It is the second major non-performing loan acquisition by Apollo in the region this year. Earlier in 2018, PropertyEU revealed that the New York-based public equity group inked the purchase of the €2.8 bn Project Helix non-performing loan portfolio from Bank of Cyprus, the island’s largest lender.
Apollo paid €1.4 bn for the package, or 48 cents on the dollar. The package included a total of 14,000 loans secured by 9,065 properties.
The deal, which was capital accretive to Bank of Cyprus, was partly financed with debt including the provision of a €450 mln senior tranche from the vendor.
