Novo Banco has sold the highest volume of NPLs since 2015 of the five largest Portuguese banks and dominates the live deals currently tracked by Debtwire's NPL database, according to an analysis which will be presented on Tuesday (25 June) at the Debtwire Portugal Breakfast in Lisbon.

The bank, which still has the highest NPL ratio as of the end of Q1 2019, has sold EUR 6.8bn thus far, and has EUR 3.7bn of live deals tracked in the NPL database.

Novo Banco has two live deals, including one EUR 3.2bn megadeal, Project Nata 2, which is an unsecured corporate loan transaction that has drawn binding offers from Bain Capital Credit, Davidson Kempner Capital Management, and KKR and LX Partners, as reported.

This is over seven times the volume currently being traded by Caixa Economica Montepio Geral, which is offering EUR 490m across three deals, Caixa Geral de Depósitos (EUR 400m in 2 deals) and Millennium bcp (EUR 210m in one deal).

Banco Santander Totta, the second largest privately owned bank in Portugal, is the only bank with a ratio below the ECB guideline of 5%, at 4.3%. Though it has previously sold EUR 1.2bn of NPLs, Debtwire is not currently tracking any live deals from the lender.

Last year was a record-breaker for the Portuguese NPL market, with EUR 7.1bn traded, compared to EUR 1.8bn in 2015, 2016 and 2017 combined. The banking system's NPL ratio decreased to 10.1% at the end of 2018, the third highest in Europe.

After a period of intense activity in 4Q18, the market has been quiet in 2019 so far, with no deals closed. However, with EUR 4.8bn of live deals now tracked, another busy year lies ahead. Montepio is expecting to finalise the sale of Project Atlas 2, a EUR 250m NPL portfolio, within the month, as reported last week.

Amy Finch Data Journalist Debtwire

Amy is a data journalist for Debtwire. She covers the sale of NPLs and non-core loans, with a focus on Southern Europe NPLs as well as Irish/UK markets and unsecured loans.