WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERVISTA MASSIMO CAPUTI SUI

PORTAFOGLI NPL DELLE BANCHE ITALIANE

Wall Street Journal - BY GIOVANNI LEGORANO -

02/07/2014 pg. 1.18

Bad Property Loans Burden Italian Banks

MILAN- Italian banks are
trying to unload billions
of euros of distressed
property loans at prices
that have so far failed to
lure investors.Bad loans
with a face value of more
than 8 billion ($10.9
billion) have been put on
the block this year by
banks including Banca
Monte dei Paschi di Siena
SpA, Uni-Credit SpA and
Banco Popolare SC. Only a
fraction of that amount
has been purchased by the
foreign privateequity
funds and other investors
that have expanded in
Italy in search of
bargains.The funds, which
include Blackstone Group
LP, Lone Star Investment
Advisors LLC and Fortress
Investment Group LLC, have
been more active in other
hard-hit European markets
such as Spain and Ireland. That is because real- estate sales in
those countries have started to gather steam, making it easier to
value properties.Another factor: Many of Italy's biggest banks
have set aside less than regional competitors to cover bad loans
of all types, according to Morgan Stanley. As a result, selling at
the highly discounted prices investors are demanding would mean
painful losses at a time the banks may need to increase capital to
meet tougher regulatory requirements."In recent years, Italian
banks haven't written down the value of their assets as their
euro-zone peers did," said Massimo Caputi, deputy chairman of
Italian real-estate group Prelios. "Some banks are simply not in a
position to sell those bad loan portfolios."The Italian real-

estate market didn't experience the boom and bust of Ireland and
Spain. But a protracted downturn-national output has shrunk 10% in
about six years- has depressed the sector, with residential prices
dropping by 11% since 2006. Prices of office buildings and
industrial property were down 7% and 21%, respectively, in 2013
compared with 2006, according to Scenari Immobiliari, a think
tank.Valuations are proving to be difficult because of a decline
in the number of transactions. According to national statistics
institute Istat, residential and commercial-property sales have
fallen by half since 2006. The drawn- out process of foreclosures
and auctions in Italy also is clogging up the flow of sales.This
has made it harder for banks to find comparable data as benchmarks
to price their assets, especially for commercial real estate,
which made up only 6% of all realestate transactions in the final
three months of last year. The surge in bad loans, which have more
than tripled in the past five years, also has made it tough to
keep valuations up to date.That means banks are facing higher
losses on bad debt than they initially had planned for, or must
sell smaller portfolios than they hoped. Some are putting off or
even yanking deals altogether, say investors and bank
executives.For instance, investors began eyeing Release, a large
portfolio of loans and properties offered by Banco Popolare and
other smaller banks, early this year. Popolare has assigned a net
book value of 3.2 billion to the portfolio, which includes two
office buildings on the outskirts of Rome, one rented by Telecom
Italia and another by Ericsson, valued at a combined 356 million.
The portfolio originally had been valued at 3.9 billion. About
60% is made up of nonperforming loans.Investors who mulled or
presented offers are Blackstone, Lone Star, GWM Holding, which
joined with the Pacific Investment Group, and Fortress, which is
teaming up with Prelios. One group said it would pay no more than
1.5 billion, according to people close to the talks.The bank's
executives defend their pricing."Properties never betray you,"
Banco Popolare's chief executive, Pier Francesco Saviotti, told
analysts in May. "When you have something that is reasonably good,
you will never be let down... we don't want to sell out at a
discount."Banco Popolare will now seek to sell small packages of
loans and even single properties.Elsewhere, UniCredit is trying to
sell its debt-collection unit together with 4.4 billion of gross
bad loans; the proceeds of the sale of the debt collector are
earmarked to cover losses on the debt, people familiar with the
deal say.But the figures quoted for the debt have been low. A
person familiar with the deal said at least one investor was
considering an offer of 500 million only for the bad-loans
package, or 11% its face value.

MASSIMO CAPUTI INTERVISTATO DAL WALL STREET

JOURNAL US
Wall Street Journal US 02/07/2014 pg. 2

ed. Us

Bad Property Loans Stick to Italian

Banks
MILAN-Italian banks are trying to unload billions of euros of
distressed property loans at prices that have so far failed to
lure investors.Bad loans with a face value of over 8 billion
($10.9 billion) have been put on the block this year by banks
including Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena BMPS.MI +7.64% Banca
Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A. Italy: Milan 1.54 +0.11 +7.64%
July 1, 2014 5:39 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 201.83M P/E Ratio N/A
Market Cap 7.24 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee
241,866 07/01/14 Bad Property Loans Stick to It... 06/30/14 Monte
dei Paschi Will Repay 3... 06/27/14 Banca Monte dei Paschi di
Sien... More quote details and news BMPS.MI in Your Value Your
Change Short position SpA, UniCredit UCG.MI +2.45% UniCredit
S.p.A. Italy: Milan 6.26 +0.15 +2.45% July 1, 2014 5:39 pm Volume
(Delayed 15m) : 57.60M P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap 35.87 Billion
Dividend Yield 1.42% Rev. per Employee 179,910 07/01/14 Bad
Property Loans Stick to It... 06/30/14 Supreme Court Rejects
Madoff T... 06/30/14 Is Bulgaria a Cause for Concer... More quote
details and news UCG.MI in Your Value Your Change Short position
SpA and Banco Popolare BP.MI +3.49% Banco Popolare S.C. Italy:
Milan 12.45 +0.42 +3.49% July 1, 2014 5:34 pm Volume (Delayed
15m) : 3.69M P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap 4.36 Billion Dividend Yield
N/A Rev. per Employee 289,946 07/01/14 Bad Property Loans Stick
to It... 05/15/14 Intesa Sanpaolo Posts Higher F... 04/17/14 Banco
Popolare's 1.5 Bln Righ... More quote details and news BP.MI in
Your Value Your Change Short position SC. A fraction of that
amount has been bought by the foreign private-equity funds and
other investors that have expanded in Italy in search of bargains.
The funds, which include Blackstone Group BX +0.42% Blackstone
Group L.P. U.S.: NYSE $33.58 +0.14 +0.42% July 1, 2014 4:02 pm
Volume (Delayed 15m) : 3.67M AFTER HOURS $33.58 0.00 0.00% July 1,
2014 6:26 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 84,898 P/E Ratio 15.69 Market
Cap $19.42 Billion Dividend Yield 4.17% Rev. per Employee
$3,246,810 07/01/14 Bad Property Loans Stick to It... 07/01/14
United Biscuits Considers IPO 06/30/14 Pinnacle Foods Formally
Termin... More quote details and news BX in Your Value Your
Change Short position LP, Lone Star Investment Advisors LLC and
Fortress Investment Group FIG +0.54% Fortress Investment Group
L.L.C. Cl A U.S.: NYSE $7.48 +0.04 +0.54% July 1, 2014 4:02 pm
Volume (Delayed 15m) : 1.51M AFTER HOURS $7.47 -0.01 -0.13% July

1, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 100 P/E Ratio 9.84 Market
Cap $3.20 Billion Dividend Yield 4.28% Rev. per Employee
$1,250,880 07/01/14 Bad Property Loans Stick to It... 07/01/14
LightSquared Unveils Plan Led ... 06/23/14 News Corp to Sell 11
Community... More quote details and news FIG in Your Value Your
Change Short position LLC, have been more active in other hard-hit
European markets such as Spain and Ireland. That is because realestate sales in those countries have started to gather steam,
making it easier to value properties.Another factor: Many of
Italy's biggest banks have set aside less than regional
competitors to cover bad loans of all types, according to Morgan
Stanley. As a result, selling at the highly discounted prices
investors are demanding would mean painful losses at a time the
banks may need to increase capital to meet tougher regulatory
requirements."In recent years, Italian banks haven't written down
the value of their assets as their euro-zone peers did," said
Massimo Caputi, deputy chairman of Italian real-estate group
Prelios. "Some banks are simply not in a position to sell those
bad loan portfolios."The Italian real-estate market didn't
experience the boom and bust of Ireland and Spain. But a
protracted downturn-national output has shrunk 10% in about six
years-has depressed the sector, with residential prices dropping
by 11% since 2006. Prices of office buildings and industrial
property were down 7% and 21%, respectively, in 2013 compared with
2006, according to Scenari Immobiliari, a think tank.Valuations
are proving to be difficult because of a decline in the number of
transactions. According to national statistics institute Istat,
residential and commercial-property sales have fallen by half
since 2006. The drawn-out process of foreclosures and auctions in
Italy also is clogging up the flow of sales.This has made it
harder for banks to find comparable data as benchmarks to price
their assets, especially for commercial real estate, which made up
only 6% of all real-estate transactions in the final three months
of last year. The surge in bad loans, which have more than tripled
in the past five years, also has made it tough to keep valuations
up-to-date.That means banks are facing higher losses on bad debt
than they initially had planned for, or must sell smaller
portfolios than they hoped. Some are putting off or even yanking
deals altogether, say investors and bank executives.For instance,
investors began examining Release, a large portfolio of loans and
properties offered by Banco Popolare and other smaller banks,
early this year. Popolare has assigned a net book value of 3.2
billion to the portfolio, which includes two office buildings on
the outskirts of Rome, one rented by Telecom Italia and another by
Ericsson, valued at a combined 356 million. The portfolio
originally had been valued at 3.9 billion. About 60% is made up
of nonperforming loans. Investors who weighed or presented offers
are Blackstone, Lone Star, GWM Holding, which joined with the
Pacific Investment Group, and Fortress, which is teaming up with
Prelios. The investors view the Release portfolio as overvalued,
with one group saying it would pay no more than 1.5 billion,
according to people close to the talks.The bank's executives
defend their pricing."Properties never betray you," Banco

Popolare's chief executive, Pier Francesco Saviotti, told analysts

in May. "When you have something that is reasonably good, you will
never be let down...we don't want to sell out at a discount."Banco
Popolare will now seek to sell small packages of loans and even
single properties.Elsewhere, UniCredit is trying to sell its debtcollection unit together with 4.4 billion of gross bad loans; the
proceeds of the sale of the debt collector are earmarked to cover
losses on the debt, people familiar with the deal say.But the
figures quoted for the debt have been low so far. A person
familiar with the deal said at least one investor was considering
an offer of just 500 million only for the bad-loans package, or
just 11% its face value, far below previous deals.Meanwhile, Monte
dei Paschi, which counts a quarter of its loans as sour, tried for
about six months to sell about 2 billion of gross bad loans. But
in the end, it was able to sell just 500 million, containing
12,000 secured and unsecured loans, to Fortress.

LA PRELIOS DI CAPUTI VENDE HARBURG CARRE

PER 37,4 MLN E MANTIENE LA GESTIONE

DAILY REAL ESTATE

Il primo giornale online del real estate italiano
Venerd 4 luglio 2014

Prelios e Morgan Stanley vendono ad Amburgo

Harburg Carre ceduto per 37,4 milioni, Prelios manterr la
gestione
Amburgo - Prelios Deutschland e Morgan Stanley Real Estate
Investing hanno venduto lHarburg Carre di Amburgo a Erste
Immobilien per37,4 milioni di euro. Prelios manterr comunque la
gestione dellimmobile. Ledificio, interamente locato, offre
23.000 mq di superficie retail, uffici e residenziale, oltre a un
parcheggio di 512 posti auto.

CAPUTI E SCORDINO STRINGONO ACCORDI CON SECONDCAP

PER PRELIOS SGR
ItaliaOggi 04/07/2014 pg. 38

Prelios sgr preferisce

l'inglese
Prelios sgr, la societ di asset management
del gruppo Prelios, ha siglato un accordo con
Secondcap, societ autorizzata dalla Fca a
Londra che gestisce una piattaforma di
transazioni sul mercato secondario dei fondi
chiusi e riservati con un network di oltre 400
investitori internazionali, per incrementare
la liquidit degli investimenti nei fondi
immobiliari privati che ha in gestione.
Abbiamo sviluppato una partnership
innovativa, ha spiegato Paolo Scordino, a.d.
di Prelios sgr,che ci permette di aprire un
canale privilegiato per i nostri clienti, in
grado di rendere pi liquidi i loro
investimenti. Poter accedere a un mercato pi
dinamico signi ca poter cogliere maggiori
opportunit per valorizzare gli investimenti
in tempi pi rapidi. Grazie a questo accordo,
Secondcap metter a disposizione la sua
piattaforma di investitori internazionali e i
suoi servizi di supporto a condizioni
agevolate a esclusivo vantaggio dei quotisti
dei fondi riservati gestiti da Prelios sgr,
che possono cos incrementare la liquidit
delle loro quote e valorizzare i propri
investimenti.

PRELIOS SGR CON CAPUTI E SCORDINO CHIUDE CON

SECONDCAP LINTESA SUI FONDI
MF - Maria Elena Zanini -

04/07/2014 pg. 16

ed. Nazionale

Prelios sgr, intesa sui fondi con la

piattaforma Secondcap
Accordo importante per Prelios sgr: la societ del gruppo
immobiliare Prelios attiva nell'asset management ha siglato una
partnership con Secondcap, societ che gestisce una piattaforma di
transazionisul mercato secondario dei fondi chiusi e riservati con
una rete di oltre 400 investitori internazionali. In base
all'accordo Secondcap metter a disposizione la propria
piattaforma ai quotisti dei fondi gestiti da Prelios sgr, i quali
potranno incrementare cos la liquidit dei propri investimenti.
Da parte sua Secondcap entrer nel mercato immobiliare italiano
accedendo a uno dei principali portafogli di fondi real estate
(dal valore di circa 3,7 miliardi di euro) e allargando la base
dell'offerta per il proprio network di investitori. Per Paolo
Scordino, amministratore delegato di Prelios sgr, quella con
Secondcap una partnership innovativa: Poter accedere a un
mercato pi dinamico significa poter cogliere maggiori opportunit
per valorizzare i propri investimenti in tempi pi rapidi e
riducendo i costi di transazione.