Bayside buys €150m NPL portfolio

Bayside Capital has acquired a portfolio of non-performing loans worth about €150 million at face value from Spanish savings bank Bantierra (Nueva Caja Rural de Aragón).

The firm claims its is the first such deal in the Spanish cooperative banking sector. The portfolio comprised both secured and unsecured personal and SME corporate loans, Bayside said in a statement.

Bayside recently closed its latest Europe-focused fund at $1.1 billion, ahead of its target. It was unclear at press time whether the fund, HIG Bayside Loan Opportunity Fund III (Europe), was used to finance this deal.

Bayside said it had established a network of NPL servicers with whom it has been working since the beginning of 2013.

Ahmed Hamdani, a managing director at Bayside Capital, said in a statement: “With the successful completion of this transaction, Bayside has shown itself to be a reliable and effective partner to financial entities looking to execute transactions in a tight timeframe. We are currently in discussions with other banks on a number of loan portfolios and expect to complete additional NPL acquisitions in the coming months.”