Lone Star Just Dropped $6B On A Massive Spanish Bank Portfolio
Lone Star has bought a massive portfolio of foreclosed real estate assets from Catalan lender CaixaBank, as the opportunity fund giant continues to go big on Iberia.
Lone Star has agreed a deal to buy 80% of CaixaBank’s real estate business, valued at €6.7B ($7.8B), putting the size of its investment at €5.4B ($6.2B). The value of the assets has been written down from €12.8B ($14.9B).
The exact breakdown of the portfolio has not been revealed, but it consists of €5.8B of foreclosed assets, likely to be mainly residential, and €900M of nonperforming loans to Spanish developers.
Lone Star’s 10th buyout fund and fifth real estate fund have teamed up to buy the portfolio.
Along with Blackstone, Lone Star has been the private equity player that has made the biggest bet on the recovery of the Spanish property market over the last few years, having invested in deals totalling just shy of €10B in the country and another €800M in Portugal.
In 2014, it teamed up with JP Morgan to buy €3.5B of Spanish loans from German bank Eurohypo. A year later, it bought house builder Neinor from Spanish lender Kutxabank for €930M, and last year floated the company, booking a €500M profit on the deal.
Last year, Lone Star agreed to buy distressed Portuguese lender Novo Bank for €770M.
CaixaBank estimated last year that Spanish lenders will write off a combined €150B as a result of the country’s massive construction boom in the run up to 2007, but today, mortgage lending is rebounding and the housing market is starting to recover, meaning investors like Blackstone, Lone Star, Cerberus and Apollo are continuing to invest in the country.
