(Bloomberg) -- Cerberus Capital Management LP is one of the frontrunners to buy a Spanish bad loan portfolio worth more than €2 billion ($2.2 billion) from Hoist Finance AB, according to people familiar with the matter.
The process is in final stages and expected to close by late July, according to the people, who cannot be named as discussions are private. Cabot Credit Management Ltd and Kruk SA are also vying to acquire the assets, according to the people.
Officials for Cerberus, Hois, Kruk and Cabot declined to comment.
Hoist is a long-term investor in the Spanish credit sector and the country is its third largest market by assets, at around 16%, after Italy and Poland. The Stockholm-listed company recently agreed to buy a €270 million portfolio of non-performing mortgages from Banco Santander SA, Bloomberg reported.
The sale being negotiated with Cerberus is part of Hoist’s strategy to regularly sell assets to free up balance sheet for new deals.
Cerberus is also in the process of trying to acquire about €7 billion in European bad loans from Norwegian debt collector Zolva Group. The loans are mostly from Spain and Norway.
(Updates with Kruk’s decline to comment in third paragraph)
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