FMS Wertmanagement is on the cusp of offloading its final Spanish and Portuguese loan assets in a circa €500m (£363m) deal to Oaktree Capital Management.
Known in the market as Project Gaudi, the portfolio has an unpaid balance of €740m and comprises 18 loans including performing, sub-performing and non-performing loans.
Trophy assets include the 483 bedroom Hotel Arts in Barcelona (pictured) and the five-star 194 bedroom Penha Longa Hotel Golf Resort in Cascias, which was formerly owned by Deutsche Bank Real Estate Iberian Value.
Oaktree fought off competition from Colony Capital for the deal.
The sale comes four years after the bad bank was selected to wind up Hypo Real Estate’s assets. It forms part of FMS WM’s strategy to offload some €27.2bn of European loans through restructuring, repayment and asset disposals.
Of these, 16 loans are Spanish assets, and two are Portuguese commercial properties.
In addition to the hotels, the loan is secured by five shopping and leisure centres, including the 386,370 sq ft Barrio Art Decó leisure centre in Madrid
There are also four business parks in Madrid and Barcelona, including the 74,000 sq ft San Fernando Business Park near Madrid airport, 17 Blue Self Storage self-storage assets in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia, as well as some residential and industrial development sites.
Giorgio Manenti, managing director of Eastdil Secured said: “Investors are homing in on the fact that we anticipate to see significant trading improvement in the transient leisure and MICE (meetings, incentive, conventions and exhibitions) sector. The strength of the dollar and the weakening of the euro will have a significant impact on the European gateway cities such as Barcelona, Rome or Dusseldorf, which will in turn help the central and southern European hotel trading markets which have been stagnant for many years now.”
Cushman & Wakefield’s finance team in London was instructed in October last year to sell the portfolio.
FMS declined to comment.
