Bad Bank Reports EUR 36M Profit for 2014

Contributing the most to the revenue was the sale of EUR 25.9m-worth of shares of chemicals company Helios, and the sale of EUR 12.5m-worth of car electronics maker Letrika shares.

Also standing out in the report are EUR 18m secured as part of financial restructuring at flag carrier Adria Airways.

After starting at the end of 2013 with the transfer of bad claims from the NLB and NKBM banks, BAMC took over EUR 1.55bn worth of bad claims held by Abanka and Banka Celje at a transfer value of EUR 561.1m.

Another EUR 38.6m worth of bad claims were transferred on market terms from two smaller banks, Factor banka and Probanka.

The claims transferred from NLB and NKBM involved 426 companies, Abanka's claims involved 229 debtors and Banka Celje's 93.

At the end of 2014 the bad bank was conducting restructuring at 79 companies, to which it held claims worth EUR 1.1bn gross.

The estimated fair value of assets was EUR 643.5m, which BAMC says shows the restructuring approach yields much higher returns than the cashing in of collateral that was conducted with 496 debtors at the end of 2014.

BAMC helped secure liquidity in six cases with a partial withdrawal of liens, and carried out a debt-to-equity conversion in seven companies undergoing restructuring.

It held 12 ownership investments at the beginning of last year, the most important being a 23.5% stake in brewery Pivovarna Laško. By the end of the year the figure rose to 24 investments.

Among the successful cases of restructuring last year BAMC highlighted car parts maker Cimos, hardware-through-IT group Avtotehna, the ACH holding, aluminium and steel products maker Aha Emmi, and foundry MLM.

Real estate stands out when it comes to the collateral held by BAMC, but the bad bank began 2014 without any direct property ownership. It later took over 51 pieces of real estate, whose fair value stood at 54.7m at the end of the year, EUR 16.6m less than the nominal value.

BAMC's operating costs grew from EUR 5m to EUR 14m last year, EUR 8.5m of which went for expenditure for services, especially consultancy services, and EUR 4.9m for labour costs. The number of people employed at BAMC rose from 12 to 81 last year.

Source: SloveniaTimes