Ireland was the 4th largest seller of loan portfolios over the past 5 years, with €63.7bn of sales from 2015 to 2019. This is according to a study from Debtwire, a technology platform that collates information on distressed debt and leverage transactions.
NAMA was the 5th largest individual seller of loans over the period with disposals of €21.9bn. The data shows €9bn of portfolio sales from Ireland in 2019, with €5.8bn relating to residential mortgages, whilst there was €2.6bn of nonperforming commercial real estate loan disposals.
The Debtwire data shows that NPLs in Europe at end 2019 are at their lowest level since 2010, though this data has already been well understood given quarterly updates from the ECB, this last of which showed European NPEs at 3.56% last June. Italy was the largest seller of loan portfolios followed by Spain and the UK.
Goodbody Stockbrokers estimate NPEs across the Irish banks were c.6% at the end of 2019. However, in line with commentary from the main banks, Goodbody anticipate these NPE ratios to continue to reduce with further disposals and restructuring in 2020 to bring NPE ratios closer to c.3.5% by end 2020.
Source: www.businessworld.ie
