KRUK wins the tender to purchase bank debt portfolio in Italy

As previously announced, in the fourth quarter of this year KRUK resumed its investment activity on the Italian market. On December 13th 2019, ItaCapital S.r.l., a member company of the KRUK Group, won an auction to purchase a portfolio of unsecured retail debt with a nominal value of  EUR 75m (or PLN 322m at the mid-rate quoted by the National Bank of Poland for December 13th 2019).

‘Put up for sale in the auction was a typical portfolio in Italy. As we have been working on cases with similar profiles of another bank for two years now, we are operationally ready to handle the new portfolio. The portfolio has been sold by one of Italy’s largest banks, which is for us an important business partner,’ said Piotr Krupa, President of the Management Board of KRUK S.A.

There is more news from the Italian market concerning KRUK’s investments in the fourth quarter of 2019. On October 21st 2019, the management of the local subsidiary KRUK Italia also announced the purchase of a portfolio of unsecured corporate debt from BNP Paribas. The nominal value of the purchased portfolio was EUR 162m.

‘Despite being relatively small, this portfolio is important to us as a springboard for further development, helping us hone our capabilities on the large corporate and SME debt market in Italy. We will be acting prudently and responsibly within that segment: the head of our corporate team is an Italian manager with more than 20 years of experience ,’ added Piotr Krupa.

 In the fourth quarter, KRUK also reported the winning of an auction for sale of debt portfolios from one of the largest Polish banks. On December 9th 2019, KRUK received a favourable decision from the Bank’s Management Board regarding the conclusion of a debt assignment agreement concerning unsecured debt with a total nominal value of PLN 0.8bn. However, the Bank also announced that it had abandoned the planned sale of mortgage-backed debts, including those denominated in EUR, CHF and USD, with a total nominal value of PLN 0.6bn.

‘Although we are seeing increased activity on the part of debt originators in Poland looking to sell their portfolios, the reality is such that, even if we win an auction by offering the best price, banks may still find that price less than satisfactory. We are patient and expect increase supply of debt portfolios in the future,’ concluded Piotr Krupa.