An Austria-based bank nationalized in the depression has taken the first step toward selling a six bn. property portfolio with the sale of a ground-breaking castle-hotel on an Alpine lake.
Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank, that has in depth holdings in southeast Europe, has signed a contract to sell Schloss Velden hotel, a 105-room top quality resort with roots stretching back more than four hundred years. The new owner, Italian hotelier Ugo Barchiesi, asserts he intends to continue to operate the hotel as a five-star resort with a focus on medical treatments, and he will expand its spa.
The price of the deal wasn't revealed, but hotel gurus guesstimate it was in the 60 million range, considerably less than the hundred million the bank and its partner had invested in the property. The purchaser and seller have a contract not to make clear the cost.
The move by Hypo Alpe-Adria is the most recent sign EU banks are starting to unload distressed property assets. In the years immediately following the world industrial collapse, they were averse to do hence because that would suggest recording high losses.
However in recent months, some Western european banks have shown more of an eagerness to dump disturbed loans and grabbed real estate as they have stabilized their balance sheets and as commercial-property values have risen. Countless EU banks, including Barclays Capital and Anglo Irish Bank, have started to get rid of U.S. Assets.
Hypo Alpe-Adria was nationalized by the state of Austria in December 2009 in a rescue costing 5.5 billion. BayernLB, a public-sector German bank that itself was agitated, held a majority stake of 67%. BayernLB lost more than 3.7 bill when it handed the bank over for 1.
The bank is unloading its real estate portfolio as an element of a broad restructuring effort.It is the same stuff with Croatia real estate.
"The exposure of the group to real estate is by far higher than for any analogous peer," announced Gottwald Kranebitter, who was appointed Boss last year with the task of restructuring the troubled bank, that has about 40 bn. in total assets.
In February, the bank established a real estate subsidiary to take on the task of selling its 6 billion portfolio, about thirty percent of which consists of property holdings and the remainder of which is loans and leasing exposure. The majority of this portfolio is in southeast Europe, and about a third is related to tourism, including hostels, camping sites and other hospitality infrastructure.
Mr. Kranebitter said in an interview the bank wants to close on sales of about one hundred properties this year and will definitely be looking at chances for selling complete portfolios. He did not want to discuss pricing or to explain which loans or properties would go on the block.
"There's no fire sale. There aren't any 'haircut ' sales. We sell at the prices that we think in a way that increasingly allows us to close transactions," he claimed.
Lots of the investments and loans "had an inherent speculative element which simply did not work out," he announced.
Schloss Velden, a luxury resort on Lake Worth in Austria, has a spa, cafe, beach club and marina. It has also got 45 residences, with twenty-one still for sale. The area is known for its casinos and provided the setting for 2 popular German-language TV shows.
The bank purchased the hotel in 2004 from an individual and added a new wing with more rooms and a spa, plus some residential units. The investment was partly meant to help tourism in the area near the bank's headquarters, asserts Christoph Harle, MD of Jones Lang LaSalle Hostels.
Hypo Alpe-Adria's sale of Schloss Velden comes as the Austrian property market is enjoying a period of relative stability, compared to other countries.
According to Stats Austria, a central agency, luxury-hotel overnite stays contracted only barely in 2009 and grew 4.1% to 44.1 million in 2010.
"The hotel itself is really lovely," Mr. Harle declared. "It's a nice hotel. It's just a matter of how are you making it work financially."
Besides concentrating on a new medical age defying spa concept, the new owners desire "to stimulate the superb place with artists, famous Italian football players, fashion and parties," Mr. Barchiesi announces, adding that it's like Sleeping Beauty and needs to be woken up.
The majority of Hypo Alpe-Adria's real estate holdings are in Croatia and Slovenia.
According to a brief by Jones Lang LaSalle on the Zagreb, Croatia, office market, demand remains puny because of the depression. Nevertheless there has been a slight uptick in investments this year, as well as more interest from foreign backers expecting market conditions will improve when Croatia gains membership to the EU Union, talks for which are expected to conclude this year as reported The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Kranebitter acknowledged the real estate loans and investments were mainly made of 2004 to 2007 by the bank as speculative gambles that the property market would keep growing in value. Property values in most markets haven't recovered to those levels.
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