Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar has increased its sales of real estate foreclosed assets by 55% and has reduced the balance of non-performing loans by 16.9%

Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar continues to steadily reduce its stock of non-performing assets, thanks to effective commercial management of foreclosed assets and reduction of non-performing loans. In recent weeks it sold two portfolios, one of foreclosed properties and another of defaulted loans, bringing the volume of problem assets sold in the year to date to 791 million euros. With ongoing recovery management, driven by these portfolio sales, Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar thus expects to end 2017 with non-performing loans (NPLs) of less than 3,400 million euros and an NPL ratio of less than 11%.

As of 15 December, it had sold more than 4,100 real estate assets with a total gross book value of more than 600 million euros, representing a 55% increase in sales. According to figures published in September, the balance of NPLs, which at the end of last year stood at 4,211 million euros, had already been reduced to 3,694 million.

The two latest sales were those of the Escullos portfolio, made up of 1,456 loans valued at around 176 million euros, which was sold to CarVal Investors and the combined Lindorff and Intrum Justitia group; and the Tango portfolio, consisting of around 400 assets with a gross value of more than 57 million euros, which was sold to the US-based Waterfall fund. Both portfolios were sold in auctions that attracted considerable interest in the market and were carried out with financial advice from Alantra.

Of the non-performing corporate and SME loans in the Escullos portfolio, a large proportion of which have mortgage collateral, 48.9% are located in the Valencian Community and 25.8% in Andalusia, although the portfolio also includes properties in Murcia, the Canary Islands, Catalonia, Castilla y León and Madrid. The properties comprising the Tango portfolio are mainly residential buildings but also include some commercial and industrial assets, most of them located in Andalusia (34%), Murcia (14%) and the Valencian Community (30%).

Grupo Cooperativo Cajamar is set to end the year with very strong divestment performance, posting a more than 62% year-on-year increase in the number of real estate assets sold. Added to this is the result of the ongoing “Ahora o nunca” (“Now or never”) promotional campaign, in which a selection of 4,500 properties are being offered for sale at discounts of up to 40%.

The reduction in non-performing assets, thanks to the 16.9% decrease in doubtful assets and successful commercial management of foreclosed assets, with sales up 55%, has resulted in a gradual decline in the NPL ratio, which reached 11.09% on 30 November, down 2.46 percentage points.