The sale of the 5.2 billion Ariadni loan securitization failed.

Seven months late, the board of PQH, which had taken over as special liquidator for the management and sale of the largest loan portfolio of 5.2 billion euros, decided that the tender for the securitization had ended in vain.

This is the securitization called Ariadni, which includes 97,000 loans from 13 banks in liquidation. The book value of the loans amounts to 5.2 billion euros, while the total claims (including interest, etc.) amount to 14 billion euros. 60% of the portfolio includes business loans while most of it is covered by collateral.

According to liquidator PQH’s planning, non-binding offers should have been submitted by January 18, 2022 and binding offers by May. This would then be followed by an evaluation and signature of the transaction. Finally, on July 15, the d.s. of PQH considered that the two offers submitted were not binding, while they were not significantly lower than the price, which had been calculated around 700 million euros.

The size of the transaction (Ariadne) had gathered the interest of management companies and investment funds. Suffice it to say that in total Morgan Stanley sent the information to 30 investors and 13 attended.

But geopolitical and economic conditions that worsened after February reduced investors’ risk appetite. Thus, maximum flexibility was given, with extensions and other means, to no avail.

According to a PQH briefing to reporters, it will continue to manage and find a solution to achieve optimal utilization, either by repeating the tender or creating smaller portfolios, or considering other avenues.

It is recalled that PQH has successfully completed and undertaken other large transactions, such as that of Postal Savings Bank or Ailos, which had preceded it, with a book value of 1.075 billion euros in Intrum in May 2020.