Sector developments and company hires

Irish NPE portfolio offloaded
AIB Group is set to sell a non-performing loan portfolio in long-term default to Mars Capital Finance Ireland as part of a consortium arrangement with Mars and affiliates of Apollo Global Management. At completion, AIB will receive a cash consideration of approximately €400m.

As at September 2020, the loan portfolio had a gross NPE value of circa €600m and a fully loaded RWA position of circa €400m. In the year ended 31 December 2019, the loan portfolio incurred a loss before tax and post-provisions of circa €62m.

The portfolio consists of approximately 4,000 non-performing customer connections across circa 3,500 assets, with an average time since first default of around 10 years and about 90% of the portfolio first entering default over seven years ago. The assets comprise 92% private dwelling homes, 5% buy-to-let properties and 3% mixed-use properties. The average balance per customer connection is circa €300,000, with an average arrears amount of circa €95,000.

The sale proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, including the continuation of support for customer restructuring. The sale is expected to be capital accretive due to the reduction in associated RWAs, in addition to alleviating the negative impact of calendar provisioning for this long-term NPE portfolio.

North America
Churchill Asset Management has announced a swathe of promotions across its senior lending and junior capital and private equity solutions investment teams, as well as its investor relations and operations departments, effective from 1 March. Notably, Randy Schwimmer (senior md, head of origination and capital markets) and Mathew Linett (senior md, head of underwriting and portfolio management) have been named co-heads of senior lending. Christopher Cox, formerly cro for the senior lending strategy, has also been appointed cro for the entire Churchill organisation.

Schroders has expanded its securitised credit team with the appointment of a senior portfolio manager in a newly created role, bolstering its management of assets in the CLO market and underlying syndicated corporate loans. Alyse Kelly, who has more than two decades of investment experience, will be based in New York and report to Michelle Russell-Dowe, Schroders’ head of securitised credit. Kelly was previously a director at Pretium, focused on leveraged loans in the media, telecom, lodging, gaming, leisure, and consumer products sectors. She previously held director roles at Valcour Capital and Aladdin Capital, having begun her career as a credit analyst at S&P.