Sareb awards due diligence review of its assets to a consortium of 13 firms

Sareb has decided to award a consortium of 13 firms the due diligence review of the company’s assets, a key phase in the future sale of those assets. A large number of firms operating in Spain took part in the tender process, which complied with the rules on maximum transparency, competitive applications and equal treatment of all candidates.

Clifford Chance is to coordinate a consortium comprising six law firms (Clifford Chance, Gómez-Acebo Pombo, Pérez Llorca, Ramón y Cajal, Deloitte Legal and Broseta Abogados), five property valuation companies led by CB Richard Ellis (Gesvalt, Savills, Knight Frank, Cushman & Wakefield and CB Richard Ellis itself), KPMG (to provide transfer pricing review services) and IBM (in charge of technological solutions and databases). It is anticipated that some of the firms involved in the tender process as part of other consortiums may also eventually join the team which will carry out the due diligence review.

After analysing the proposals from the different professional teams, Sareb chose the proposal best suited to its key objectives of divesting while delivering the best returns for its shareholders. It also weighed up the candidates’ experience of dealing with highly sophisticated transactions within set time limits. The due diligence review is scheduled for the first half of 2013.

Sareb has approximately €55bn in assets contributed both by the nationalised banks in Group 1 (BFA-Bankia, Catalunya Banc, Novagalicia Banco-Banco Gallego and Banco de Valencia) and by the Group 2 banks that had requested financial aid (BMN, Liberbank, Caja 3 and CEISS). The assets contributed by the Group 2 banks are due to be transferred on 28 February.