Lone Star and Apollo Global Management are vying to buy Aviva’s £2.7bn Project Churchill.
A decision was expected from the seller as Estates Gazette went to press, with final, binding bids having been received on Monday. Cerberus Capital Management, which had been on a shortlist of three, is understood to have withdrawn from the process.
The sale is likely to be one of the last notable loan portfolio sales in the UK this cycle, with major lenders hurt during the downturn having disposed of their problem positions.
The loan book is a comprehensive disposal of all of Aviva’s non-core loans.
It is secured by more than 1,000 UK properties across a range of sectors, including retail, industrial, car showrooms, offices and care homes. The properties are valued at close to £2.4bn.
The portfolio is made up of non-performing, sub-performing and performing loans and is expected to trade for a discount of close to 10% of the valuation of the underlying property – around £2.2bn.
Churchill has been split into four separate tranches and as a result it is thought that a sale of different tranches to different bidders, while not the most likely outcome, has not been ruled out.
