A British judge has sentenced the American fund Cerberus to pay some 405 million euros to Banco Sabadell in the case of sales of toxic assets. Specifically, it has ordered the fund to pay some 358 million euros, to which another 48 million are added for interest and costs of the judicial process.
The Spanish bank sued Cerberus before the High Court in London for an operation related to portfolios of Spanish real estate assets. Sabadell alleged that the US fund was required to pay millions of euros under investment agreements signed in 2018 and 2019, which were partially guaranteed by Cerberus.
In 2018, the bank carried out a process to sell three portfolios of impaired assets, called Challenger, Coliseum and Rexwith a gross value of around 6,414 million euros. In 2019, they were finally awarded and transferred to Cerberus for a consideration that was around 3,500 million euros, although it was agreed to defer up to 21% of the amount in time (around 600 million euros).
Some of these properties lacked registration because they were in the process of ‘repossession’ or foreclosure or, directly, at auction. Sabadell had a period of three years to resolve this situation, until the end of 2022. However, it decided to go ahead and resolve it for the properties in the portfolio. Coliseum.
At the same time, Cerberus paid between 170 and 180 million for the deferred payment associated with this portfolio, so that the amount pending payment then dropped to around 400 million euros.
Subsequently, Sabadell complied with the records in Challenger and Rex in a package of properties valued at 365 million (91.25% of the total).
However, it was at this time that the fund refused to pay the remainder in full, alleging that Sabadell had not registered all the assets and, therefore, had no obligation to pay anything more.
Thus, Sabadell decided to denounce the firm in January 2023 before the High Court of Justice of England, which finally ruled in favor of Sabadell and decided to rule against Cerberus.
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