The bad bank created by the regrouping of toxic assets owned by nationalised Spanish banks has become „Europe’s biggest property agency,“ notes daily ABC. The assets represent €36.7bn, which is —
considerably more than Europe’s leading property group, France’s Unibail-Rodamco, which has assets worth €27.5bn. It is also more than the €30bn absorbed by the Irish bad bank, the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA)
On December 31, the nationalised banks, including Bankia — which by itself was responsible for €22.3bn — Catalunya Banc, Novagalicia Banco and Banco de Valencia, transferred their toxic assets to the Company for the Management of Assets from Bank Restructurating (SAREB). However, it is expected that the bad bank will take on a further €4.5bn in assets from four other institutions which will also receive aid from Brussels — Liberbank, Caja3, BMN and Banco Ceiss, thereby boosting its holdings to €41.2bn. For ABC, the management of such a giant will represent a real challenge. SAREB will have to cope —
with a huge variety of different types of absorbed assets, distributed over a wide geographical area. And let’s not forget the different possible solutions: development of the property portfolio, liquidation or restructuring.