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Banco Santander Is Said to Be Seeking to Sell Astaldi Loans

Santander Is Said to Be Seeking Exit From Astaldi Loan Exposure

(Bloomberg) -- Banco Santander SA is seeking to reduce loan exposure to Rome-based builder Astaldi SpA, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Spanish bank is approaching investors directly to sell as much as 50 million euros ($62 million) of loans as soon as this week, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to talk about it. Brokers are quoting the loans between 65 cents on the euro and 70 cents on the euro, the people said.

Officials at Banco Santander and Astaldi declined to comment when asked about attempts to sell loan exposure.

Barclays Plc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which don’t hold the loans, were marketing parts of a 500 million-euro revolving credit facility on behalf of international lenders in January, Bloomberg News reported at the time.

Other international banks in Astaldi’s RCF syndicate have included Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Credit Agricole SA, Erste Group Bank AG, ING Bank NV, Natixis SA and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The syndicate has also included Italian lenders Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA and Banca Popolare di Sondrio ScpA, the data show.

Officials at Barclays, Goldman Sachs and the other banks in the syndicate didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Astaldi’s 750 million euros of bonds due December 2020 fell 1.5 cents on the euro to a two-week low of 80 cents at 9 a.m. in London, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

--With assistance from Stefania Spezzati

To contact the reporters on this story: Luca Casiraghi in London at lcasiraghi@bloomberg.net, Chiara Albanese in Rome at calbanese10@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Abigail Moses at amoses5@bloomberg.net, Jerrold Colten at jcolten@bloomberg.net, Chris Vellacott

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.