The bad bank created to store toxic real estate assets, known as SAREB, has finished its first major deal by selling 1,000 housing properties to the rapacious United States fund HIG Capital for 100 million euros.
The deal will be profitable and happen through the creation of a fund of bank shares. SAREB will own 49% of the fund, and a United States fund will own the remainder.
The structure of the deal looks good, but it will force SAREB to keep connections with a portfolio of toxic real estate assets until all of them are sold off. Future asset sales will make sense not only to get the most revenues possible, but also to completely divest of bank-owned houses. If that happens, then investors will regain confidence in Spain's real estate sector.
