Unicredit announced yesterday the start of the second phase of its Sandokan program with the signing of the agreement to entrust the management and special servicing activities relating to a real estate unlikley-to-pay loans portfolio named Sandokan 2 to Pimco, Gwm and Arec (Aurora Recovery Capital). The agreement was finalized on Wednesday 5 June (see the press release here).
The transaction was expected following the success of the first Sandokan project, announced in November 2015 and then launched in December 2016 in relation to the securitization of a 1.3 billion euros UTPs real estate portfolio and again entrusted to Pimco, Gwm and Arec (see here a previous post by BeBeez). The securitization was then closed during FY 2017 (see here Unicredit’s FY 2017 financial statements, attachment # 3).
From May 2018 rumors were on the market about a size for the new portfolio to be securitized of about 3 billion euros (see here a previous post by BeBeez)..The expected size of the securitized portfolio was then reduced to a range of 2-3 billions (see here a previous post by BeBeez) and Unicredit yesterday specified that the maximum amount will be 2 billions, to be sold in several successive tranches. The first tranche is scheduled for mid-June 2019, through Yanez srl spv, the same spv used for the first Sandokan transaction.
The platform will contribute to increasing the future value of credits through a proactive management of assets, the adoption of innovative solutions and the provision of new loans, when and where necessary. At the moment, the transaction will not lead to the deconsolidation of the portfolio for Unicredit, but this possibility is not excluded in the future.
