• GE on the sale of its real estate loan portfolio. The portfolio holds approximately US$23bn worth of investments in office buildings, apartment complexes, and other commercial property worldwide.
• NAMA on the disposal of its Northern Ireland book with a face value of c.€5bn to Cerberus (Project Eagle).
• A major UK clearing bank in relation to the sale and transfer of a portfolio of loans with a face value of circa £280m and related security (Project Cooper).
• A major UK clearing bank on the disposal of part of its Irish loan book. We acted as international counsel on the transaction (Project Pegasus).
• A major UK clearing bank in relation to the sale and transfer of loans with a value of circa €500m and backed by a large portfolio of German commercial real estate assets (Project Indie).
• Kennedy Wilson on a number of CRE debt portfolio acquisitions and their related financings, including its acquisition of a circa £770m portfolio of UK nonperforming real estate backed loans andrelated swaps.
• Starwood Capital in relation to its bid for RBS’s £1.5bn property loan and related swap portfolio.
• NAMA as seller of the Maybourne hotels debt of circa £660m to entities controlled by the Barclay brothers.
• An international debt fund in relation to its investment in a joint venture loan portfolio acquisition platform and the first acquisition and issuance made by that platform.
• Bank of America Merrill Lynch as arranger on a £161m debt on debt financing involving the financing of a pan European CRE loan pool in seven European jurisdictions (including the Netherlands and Germany) acquired by a Luxembourg Securitization Company (which was established by a fund).
• Bank of America Merrill Lynch as arranger on a debt on debt financing involving the financing of a Dutch Loan and REO commercial property portfolio.
• Deutsche Bank as arranger on the financing of a portfolio of Irish REO residential properties acquired by a debt fund.
• A major international bank as senior lender under a £1bn term loan facility to finance the acquisition of a portfolio of UK residential mortgage loans.
• A major U.S. financial institution on the proposed acquisition and re-leveraging of the debt provided to a debt origination and acquisition platform established by a U.S. debt fund.
• GE Capital on NPL portfolios acquisition tender proceedings.
• Euler Hermes on acquisition of NPL portfolio; Euler Hermes acts as intermediary and servicer for UBS in acquisition of NPL in Poland.
• Santander Global Banking & Markets and Citibank International as Arrangers and Joint Lead Managers in relation to a PLN 1,367bn Polish auto loan securitization.
• Kreditech on the securitization of consumer loan receivables resulting from the financial activity of Kreditech Polska.
• Unicredit Bank (as arranger and investor) on the PLN 1bn securitization of Polish loan receivables originated by Santander Consumer Bank S.A.
• Getin Noble Bank S.A. on the securitization of receivables resulting from auto loans granted by Getin Noble Bank S.A.
• Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank in connection with the acquisition of several portfolios of non-performing mortgage loans, originated by Italian banks or financial intermediaries.

Across Europe, increased regulation, governmental reforms, higher capital requirements and new accounting standards on valuing loan portfolio transactions ("NPLs") continue to drive sales of non-core loan assets, including NPLs. That background, coupled with the fact that many investors across Europe have already raised capital in order to acquire loan portfolios which now needs to be deployed in an increasingly competitive environment, is likely to drive transactions going forward and open up new markets and/or more complex asset classes in more developed markets.

The last half of 2016 saw considerable activity in Southern Europe in particular which is likely to continue in 2017 and spread to other jurisdictions in Europe. Equally, the rising trend in non-performing loans (“NPLs”) in South-East Asia indicates that deleveraging is likely to become more prevalent there as well in the short to medium term.

Our team has taken an in depth look at the market, brought together in a report on loan portfolio transactions and their related financings. The report highlights potential structuring and execution techniques and explains key initial considerations for potential investors in a number of key jurisdictions.

You can view the report here. Alternatively, click on the relevant country in the interactive map below to view country-specific analysis for the jurisdictions covered in our report.