It plans to repay the debt in another 1,000 million in 2023 and that it falls below 30,000 million

MADRID, 29 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Asset Management Company for Bank Restructuring (Sareb) raised the accumulated losses of its financial and real estate portfolios to 11,621 million euros in 2022, 2,994 million euros more than what was recorded in 2021, as a result of the increase in interest rates and a new valuation of its assets, as stated in the annual activity report of the so-called 'bad bank'.

Of these capital losses, 9,995 million euros correspond to the financial assets unit (which includes real estate assets from the award of financial assets, that is, the collaterals that function as guarantees for the awarded loans), while 1,627 million correspond to to the real estate portfolio.

Sareb sources explain that their model assumes that their assets have capital losses, that is, that the purchase price tends to be higher, in book value, than the sale price.

It should be noted that the mandate of the 'bad bank' is to liquidate all 'toxic' assets transferred by financial institutions since its creation in 2012, for which it has a 15-year term, which expires in 2027, an objective that the entity does not succeed, as the same sources have recognized.

Thus, Sareb points out that the increase in capital losses is caused by financing costs, which have increased "considerably" after the repeated increases in interest rates carried out by the central banks, with their corresponding negative impact on the accounting valuation of assets.

It also indicates that there has been a decrease in the appraisal values ​​as a result of a new external valuation of the assets, while Sareb itself has carried out a more in-depth analysis of the value of the assets in its portfolios in order to approximate them. at their transactional value, although the value actually obtained by Sareb for the assets will depend on the price set in each transaction.

Sareb also points out that during 2022 the deterioration of the portfolio of assets for social and affordable rental has not increased thanks to social management, which allows the value of the same to be preserved. He estimates that, had he not carried out said management, the impairment would have suffered an increase of up to 350 million euros.

Thus, the accounting valuation of the entire Sareb portfolio reveals the need to have set up, by the end of 2022, an impairment fund of 11,621 million euros.

Likewise, the report states that the entity closed 2022 with net losses of 1,506 million euros, which represents a reduction of 7.4% compared to the 'red numbers' of 2021, when it lost 1,626 million euros.

After applying this result, Sareb presents negative equity of 2,546 million euros, compared to the 1,040 million euros it registered at the end of 2021. Likewise, negative equity reached 14,172 million euros, increasing by 42.6% compared to the previous exercise.

Sareb recalls, however, that negative own funds do not affect the continuity of the company's business activity, due to the exemption, contained in Royal Decree-Law 6/2020, of the obligation to recompose assets.

During 2022, and charged to the cash generated in said year, Sareb has amortized 2,388 million euros of debt, thanks to corrections by Bankia and BMN (now integrated into CaixaBank) that have led to the amortization of debt of 14.9 million euros and 5.6 million euros, respectively, as well as cash amortizations of 2,367.2 million.

Additionally, in February 2023 the amortization of 795.8 million euros approved by the Company in December 2022 materialized. Of these, 202.8 million euros have been amortized with a charge to the cash generated in 2022, while the The remaining 593 million euros represent extraordinary amortization charged to Sareb's structural cash.

As a consequence, Sareb's debt amortization promoted during 2022 has amounted to a total of 3,184 million euros, placing outstanding debt at 30,481 million euros, 9.45% less than in 2021 and 40% less compared to the amount of the 2012 debt of 50,781 million euros.

In addition, Sareb plans to reduce the debt by another 1,000 million euros during 2023, which will mean that the amount will fall below 30,000 million euros.

Likewise, the 'bad bank' has continued to make progress in the divestment process of its asset portfolio, which in 2022 was reduced by 2,571 million euros, to 26,324 million euros. If compared with the portfolio received at source, of 50,781 million euros, this figure represents a reduction of 48.2%.

Regarding the number of assets, the portfolio increased to 217,285 units, as a result of the process of transforming financial assets into real estate assets.

The total loan portfolio fell by 18.6% in 2022 compared to the end of 2021, to 10,802 million euros. This represents a decrease of 2,462 million euros, the company having reduced its portfolio of financial assets by 72.6% since its inception.

The management and sale of loans represented income in 2022 of 699 million euros, 11.7% less than in 2021. This decrease is motivated by the progressive reduction in the size of this segment of the portfolio, as well as by a strategy of Sareb itself to avoid selling loans with high-quality collateral and, therefore, with a value trajectory through real estate management at Sareb.

For its part, the total portfolio of real estate assets decreased by 0.7% compared to the previous year. At the end of 2022, the net book value of the portfolio amounted to 15,523 million euros, which represents a reduction of 109 million euros.

In this sense, Sareb points out that in 2022 it reached its all-time record for property sales, with 1,394 million euros, without considering the income invoiced for property rentals, compared to 1,250 million euros in 2021, which represents an increase of the 11.5%.

In number of units --considering residential, land and tertiary assets--, the company sold 18,671 units, which represents an increase of 2.2% compared to the previous year. Additionally, in 2022 Sareb sold 4,376 assets from the developers' balance sheets.

In this way, the sales of these assets reached a volume of 310 million euros (land) and 226 million euros (tertiary), 32% and 49% more than in 2021, respectively. In residential, sales stood at 825 million euros, 5% less than in 2021, mainly due to the slowdown in operations in the final stretch of the year due to the transfer of management to the new servicers, Hipoges and Anticipa-Aliseda.

The company highlights that it has continued to prioritize the sale of assets through the retail market (to individuals and companies outside the institutional sphere) and public administrations, which contributed 74% of total sales revenue in 2022.

With this strategy, Sareb seeks to optimize the sale price of its assets and avoid the "significant discounts" required in institutional markets.