Apollo European Principal Finance Fund II (“Apollo EPF II”), a fund affiliated with Apollo Global Management, LLC (NYSE: APO) (collectively with its subsidiaries “Apollo”), today announced a definitive agreement to acquire FinanMadrid, the auto and consumer loan unit of Bankia, which includes more than 188,000 customer accounts in Spain with a balance of more than €873 million of receivables (the “Portfolio”). The accounts will continue to be managed by the approximately 125 person operating platform based in Madrid, Spain, which is also being acquired by Apollo EPF II. The transaction, the terms of which were not disclosed, is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close within four months.
This transaction follows the acquisitions by Apollo EPF II and its predecessor fund, Apollo European Principal Finance Fund (“Apollo EPF I”), of numerous assets including Bank of America’s Spanish consumer credit card portfolio and operations in August 2011, Bank of America’s Irish consumer credit card unit in May 2012, and a portfolio of €265 million performing and €280 million non-performing consumer loans held by Citibank in Spain in September 2012. Upon completion of the acquisition of the Portfolio, Apollo EPF I and Apollo EPF II will have acquired approximately €2.7 billion of credit card and consumer loan receivables in Ireland and Spain, which are serviced by a staff of approximately 675 persons in total. Apollo EPF I and Apollo EPF II have been significant investors in European non-performing loan portfolios and other illiquid assets divested by financial institutions, having completed more than 30 transactions comprised of more than 1 million loans with outstanding claims of more than €10 billion.
“This transaction underscores Apollo’s ability to leverage its integrated platform to provide differentiated solutions to European financial institutions as they restructure their balance sheets. In addition, this transaction will bring our invested capital in Spain since 2011 to more than €1 billion, underscoring our commitment to Spain as a core market for our activities. We have further solidified our relationship with Bankia, one of the leading Spanish financial institutions, and we look forward to growing this relationship in the future,” said Andrés Rubio, EPF Partner and Head of Apollo EPF’s Spanish franchise.
Apollo is a global alternative investment manager with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, London, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Singapore, Mumbai and Hong Kong. Apollo had assets under management of approximately $113 billion as of December 31, 2012 in private equity, credit and real estate funds invested across a core group of nine industries where Apollo has considerable knowledge and resources.