Balbec buys LX Partners NPLs

Balbec Capital LP purchased a Non-Performing Loan portfolio from LX Partners at the end of March with a value of €4.2Bn, of which €4Bn are unsecured loans and €200 million refers to secured loans in what has been called the biggest NPL deal in years.

According to online news source ECO, LX Partners, based in Luxembourg, decided to remove the Portuguese secured and unsecured loan management specialist that provides advisory, analytics and portfolio servicing from the transaction since it had already selected a buyer for the €4.2Bn NPL portfolios.
At issue were problematic assets that LX Partners acquired in recent years from the Portuguese banking sector said to be worth €200 million.
According to Jornal Económico, the buyer is the Balbec fund that had initially made an offer for back book credits.
Back Book Assets means the credit card accounts issued by the previous issuer pursuant to the programme agreement between Company, DIC and the previous issuer, together with associated receivables (other than accounts and receivables that have been previously written off, or should have been written off, by the previous issuer.
These had been excluded when the initial intention was to sell in blocks of credit to Algebra. The sale of the mega-NPL portfolio was restricted to the sale of the servicer lead by Bernardo Simões, founding partner of LX Partners to Algebra Capital, but the amounts offered fell short of what shareholders wanted, putting the deal at risk.
ECO reported that the consortium Cerberus, Intrum and Finsolutia ( from Carval, Whitestar, and LCM) were selected for the binding offers stage to buy the €4.2Bn NPL portfolio from LX Partners in Portugal. But these are now off the table with Balbec Capital coming up with the best offer.
LX Partners is a Principal Investments Partnership specialising in credit opportunities and special situations. Its focus is on Performing Credit, SME debt, including semi-performing and non-performing loans, and thematic real estate & real assets.
Balbec Capital manages funds and develop bespoke, customised solutions for a diverse set of investors across two niche areas within credit: consumer and real estate.
Algebra Capital is a Portuguese secured and unsecured loan management specialist providing advisory, analytics and portfolio servicing. Algebra Capital is a LX Partners company.