Investors including Lone Star, Oaktree Capital, Cerberus and Kennedy Wilson have lodged final bids for £6.3bn of IBRC loans as more stock is prepared for sale.
Around 15 parties are thought to have been in stage two of the £4.8bn Project Rock and £1.5bn Project Salt process, for which final and binding offers were due on 14 February.
The parties have lined up banks to provide finance for their bids, which could be for all or some of the multiple-tranche portfolios. Lone Star has lined up a consortium of three banks for its bid. The investor is understood to be one of the few parties bidding for the entire package.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Nomura, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are also expected to have teamed up with bidders to provide loan-on-loan finance.
Project Rock is comprised of 14 separate tranches split into three large multi-borrower tranches, and 11 standalone single-borrower loan tranches. Project Salt is comprised of two large tranches split predominantly by geography.
IBRC, advised by KPMG, has also set a deadline for final and binding bids for the €9.3bn (£7.6bn) Project Stone, which comprises mostly commercial real estate loans originated through its Irish office, has been set for 21 March.
Investors are also expecting Nama to launch the sale of the €1.8bn portfolio of loans to developer Michael O’Flynn this month. Nama appointed UBS in December to oversee the sales process.
It is also readying the €225m Project Drive portfolio, which comprises loans to Brian O’Farrell’s N1 Property Developments, to be sold by Ernst & Young.
Elsewhere in Ireland, RBS has hired Eastdil Secured to advise on the possible sale of €1bn of Irish commercial real estate assets held by Ulster Bank.
bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
