The Sociedad de Gestión de Activos Procedentes de la Restructuración Bancaria, better known by its acronym Sareb, has once again readjusted the value of its assets, which is the second since the State took control of it in April 2022 and placed a new management team with Javier Torres at the helm.
During this first year with the State as the main shareholder, Sareb has carried out an exhaustive review of its portfolio to adjust the book value assigned to each asset with its real market value and based on applicable accounting regulations.
In a first assessment, the company recognized what had been vox pópuli from the first day of its creation, that the valuation made of the assets at the time of its creation, in 2012, was well above reality. Specifically, it recognized an impairment of 8,894 million in the 2021 accounts.
Now, this adjustment is increased by another 2,732 million for the 2022 accounts, which leaves an impairment compared to the original book values ??of 11,626 million euros, as stated in the activities report that Sareb has sent to its main shareholder. the Bank Financial Restructuring Fund (Frob).
Sareb sources attribute this adjustment mainly to the valuation of the land held by the company in its portfolio. They are located in completely off-market locations that reduce their attractiveness, a reality that has worsened in the last year due to the increase in interest rates and deteriorated price forecasts in the real estate sector. With this update, the impairment of Sareb’s assets, that is, the hole that this body leaves in the State’s accounts, amounts to 14,000 million euros.
What at the time Luis de Guindos, as Minister of Economy of the Government of Mariano Rajoy, presented as a market solution to the problems of the bank, threatens to become a second bailout since in a central market scenario they will be losses that are impossible to recover before 2027, the year in which, according to its constitution, Sareb must be liquidated.
Even so, since the arrival of the new management team, Sareb has managed to increase its income by 8% in 2022, to 2,412 million euros, and repay debt, guaranteed by the State, for a total of 3,184 million.
This income has contributed, among other things, to a new management model for vulnerable families who live in Sareb properties. The social rental program will have an estimated impact on the revaluation of the Sareb housing portfolio of 350 million euros.
Where previously all occupied homes were recorded as losses, now they are managed as social rentals accompanied by insertion plans, during the last year for 6,000 people, which has meant that Sareb has been able to find a new way to curb losses.
