Europe’s largest investment bank Deutsche Bank has emerged on the list of bidders this week for one of the National Asset Management Agency’s last big portfolio sales.
The Frankfurt-based bank joins a joint offer from Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs and CarVal, a US investor in distressed assets, on Nama’s sale of two portfolios which have a combined nominal value of €4.7 billion, according to sources. Others bidders include Lone Star and Cerberus.
The portfolios, called projects Emerald and Ruby, include €750 million of loans attached to boom-time residential property deals. They comprise 950 residential properties, mainly apartments, 650 of which are occupied by tenants and a further 300 vacant.
Deutsche Bank has been a major buyer of Irish commercial property assets as Irish banks shrink their balance sheet and some boom-time lenders exit the market.
The lender has in the past bought Irish loans with a par value in the billions of euros from Nama, Permanent TSB, Lloyds Banking Group and Danske Bank. It is understood that these portfolios have typically been bought through the German bank’s structured credit unit.
Spokesman for Nama, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Lone Star and CarVal declined to comment. Representatives Cerberus didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.