First Bancorp (FBP)

[Enterprising Investor]

Island’s Distressed Sale (11/25/14)

In the latest move by a Puerto Rican bank to unload distressed assets, FirstBank has put a mostly real-estate portfolio with a face value of $443 million on the block, according to people familiar with the matter.

The San Juan-based bank has hired Mission Capital Advisors to market the portfolio, which consists of about 531 loans to 289 different borrowers. Secured real-estate loans make up about 65% of the portfolio. About 11% of the portfolio is business loans and the rest a combination of land, property and unsecured credits, according to Stephen Emery, managing director of New York-based Mission.

Puerto Rico has been suffering from high unemployment, a shrinking population and credit woes. Financial institutions have been selling portfolios of distressed assets at prices ranging from about 30 cents to 50 cents on the dollar, Mr. Emery said.

Mr. Emery declined to confirm that the seller was FirstBank.

But he said there has been a lot of interest in the portfolio, which hit the market about two weeks ago.“As far as distressed sales go, there are a lot of high-quality assets in our pool,” he said.

—Peter Grant

http://online.wsj.com/articles/mortgage-lending-falls-plots-ploys-1416958784?KEYWORDS=island%27s+distressed+sale