The sale will allow the Cantabrian Bank to release the last assets of its toxic real estate assets, after last summer carried out one of the largest real estate operations of the kind: the sale to Blackstone of assets that had a gross value of €30,000 million.
The North American fund is a regular of this type of operations. In Europe, it was done months before with Bradford & Bingley's assets and in Spain, three years earlier, acquired the mortgage portfolio of CatalunyaBanc for €4.123 million, so that BBVA could advance in the integration of the financial business of the old Catalan Caja.
Banco Santander chose to create a joint venture with the US fund. The bank participated to 49%, as it seems it will do again this time.
The decision is influenced by two reasons: the pressure of the supervisors, who threaten with penalties for the new rules of provisions, and the great appetite of the investment funds, which have been made with €67,000 million in this type of assets in the last five years.