FINANCE: Nationwide is in the final stages of preparing a circa £1bn UK loan book for sale.
The bank is making final decisions on the composition of what is expected to be the next UK non-performing commercial real estate loan portfolio to come to market.
Potential bidders are aware the NPL will be launched imminently although are still awaiting access to the data room.
Deloitte has been selected to advise on the sale.
The book is expected to comprise loans secured by mostly regional properties, although some London assets will be included.
Most of this deleveraging has been carried out through the normal workout and recover of loans, alongside a single NPL portfolio sale of German assets which was completed six months ago.
In April the bank selected Oaktree Capital Management to buy its €850m (£668m) sub-performing German commercial real estate portfolio, Project Adelaide.
The investment firm paid circa €650m – or a 20% discount – for the loans secured against around 200 properties in Germany comprising almost the entirety of Nationwide’s loan book outside of the UK.
The sale of Project Adelaide had been first attempted in 2012 but was pulled as the building society could not afford to crystallise the deep losses implied from the loan portfolio pricing at that time.
All parties declined to comment.
bridget.o’connell@estatesgazette.com
