NatWest group, formerly Royal Bank of Scotland, has has launched the sale of a distressed commercial property loan portfolio. The group appointed PwC to seek buyers of a £550m portfolio of loans secured against 25 mainly shopping centre assets, according to Property Week.
Peter Cosmetatos, chief executive of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council, the trade association for European lenders, told Property Week: “I would be very surprised if this were the only NPL [non-performing loan] portfolio brought to market over the coming months.
“The pandemic has accelerated major structural change across most of commercial real estate and there will be many loans that need to be repriced, most obviously among those secured on retail, leisure and hospitality assets.”
The sale of the loans, which were taken out by multiple borrowers including private equity funds, was first reported by React News, a property website.
