Anglo Irish $9.65bn loan book attracts multiple bids

The $9.65 billion US loan book portfolio brought to the market last month by struggling Anglo-Irish Bank has attracted multiple bids from private equity real estate firms.

The portfolio, the largest single US loan book to have been publically marketed since the start of the global financial crisis, comprises 248 performing, sub-performing and non-performing loans made to a number of different types of properties. It is being sold through advisor Eastdill Secured.

According to a report by Bloomberg, bids have mainly come in the form of consortiums including The Blackstone Group with Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs,  Cerberus Capital Management with Oaktree Capital Group and LNR Property, TPG Capital with Luber-Adler Partners and Pacific Investment Management and Centerbridge Capital Partners with American International Group, Paulson & Co and BlackRock.

Other firms including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Westbrook Partners and Fortress Investment Group are also believed to have considered bids.

Bidders are understood to have lodged bids for all or parts of the portfolio, which has been positioned by Eastdill into eight separate pools, the largest of which being a $2.26 billion pool of distressed office and industrial loans.

Whether all these bidders make it to the next and final round of bids expected towards the end of the month could depend on just what sort of discount is available, particularly for the sub- and non-performing component. Sources said estimates for those loans range within the 50 cents to 80 cents on the dollar range.

According to a marketing document obtained by PERE, the properties behind  the performing loans are split 41 percent offices, 18 percent retail, 12 percent multifamily, 11 percent hotels, 9 percent industrial, 9 percent mixed use, 1 percent condos and 1 percent land. The properties behind the sub- and non-performing loans are split 21 percent offices, 18 percent retail, 15 percent hotels, 14 percent land, 13 percent multifamily, 9 percent condos, 6 percent industrial, 4 percent mixed-use.

The origin behind why Anglo Irish is selling the loan book can be traced back to the wider economic malaise in Ireland which saw the bank nationalised in 2009.

News emerged yesterday of another US loan portfolio sale by another Irish bank, the Bank of Ireland. According to The Wall Street Journal, BoI has agreed the sale of its $1.4 billion loan book, comprising 25 loans backed by real estate mainly in New York, Boston and Washington, to Wells Fargo, the US bank at a price considered close to its face value. Unlike Anglo-Irish’s loans, Bank of Ireland’s were regarded as performing.