Global Debt Sales survey 2012 - Vastgoedjournaal

MARKET OVERVIEW“Spain is the hottest distressed debtmarket right now – the pipeline is considerable.We would expect to see EUR10 to 15 billionof transactions in the next 12 months.Joel Eduard Grau Blasi, Director, Portfolio Solutions Group, KPMG in Spain”Banks’ creditworthiness questionedMore recently, the viability of banks has come to a head in Spain, whereMoody’s cut the ratings of sixteen Spanish banks on 17 May 2012.Moody’s also cut the ratings of four of Spain’s regions – Catalonia, Murcia,Andalusia and Extremadura – saying they would be unlikely to meet the2012 deficit target. Moody’s warned that rising borrowing costs wouldreduce Spain’s ability to provide support for its banks.Moody’s said there were four main drivers for the downgrades: firstly,adverse operating conditions characterized by the renewed recession.Next is the ongoing real-estate crisis and persistent high levels ofunemployment. Reduced creditworthiness of the Spanish sovereign,which weighs on banks’ standalone profiles and affects the ability of thegovernment to support banks, is a further factor. The final driver is rapidasset-quality deterioration, with non-performing loans to real-estatecompanies rising quickly. Moody’s expect other loan categories todeteriorate; and restrict market-funding access, with the ongoingEuro area debt crisis contributing to persistent investor concernsabout Spanish banks and the sovereign. 7The Moody’s announcement came just days before the Bankof Spain said that bad loans rose to 8.37 percent of all banks’outstanding loans, the highest level since August 1994. “In myopinion, Spain is the hottest distressed debt market in Europeright now – the pipeline is considerable. We would expect tosee EUR10 to 15 billion of transactions in the next year,” saysJoel Eduard Grau Blasi, Director in the Portfolio SolutionsGroup at KPMG in Spain. “Buyers and sellers are on thesame page now, with better understanding of the truevalue of loans and collateral. It is taking longer to closetransactions, as parties want deals where there is thepotential for profit sharing or deferring portions of thepayment, but everyone is open to these structures.”7 Moody’s Investor Services, 17 May 2012, http://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-downgrades-Spanish-banks-ratings-carry-negative-outlooks-or-remain--PR_245275?WT.mc_id=BankRatings2012© 2012 KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss GLOBAL entity. DEBT SALES SURVEY 2012 11