Mount Street is to acquire EAA Portfolio Advisors (EPA) from Erste Abwicklungsanstalt (EAA).
At the end of 2009, EAA was created as the asset management company to manage the assets of the former WestLB.
EAA was founded as a public law agency under the German Financial Market Stabilisation Fund Act. Its shareholders include the German State of North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) and NRW’s Savings Banks Associations. EAA took over the responsibility for the wind-down of WestLB’s portfolio of more than EUR200 billion comprising a diverse range of complex non-performing loans, ABS, leveraged credit, asset finance and structured finance assets.
EPA has managed this portfolio over the past seven years and has enabled EAA to reduce the outstanding balance to approximately EUR29 billion.
Mount Street will take over EPA, including its approximately 90 employees at offices in London, Düsseldorf, New York and Madrid, following regulatory approval which is expected in the first half of 2017.
With AUM of EUR29 billion, this platform transfer and management contract is the largest of its kind ever completed in Europe.
With this acquisition Mount Street adds portfolio management of EUR29 billion of diversified performing and non-performing credits to approximately EUR26 billion of commercial real estate loans and bonds that the company currently manages, bringing the total AUM to over EUR55 billion.
Ravi Joseph (pictured), CEO and co-founder, Mount Street, says: “For the Mount Street brand, this transaction reaffirms our pre-eminent credentials as the counterparty of choice for banks and state entities considering strategic transactions of this nature. For the leadership of Mount Street, who have extensive prior experience in credit, asset finance, and structured finance, this expansion is a natural progression in the evolution of our firm.”
Paul Lloyd, managing partner and co-founder, says: “EPA has a talented team and this transaction represents the next step in the growth of their portfolio management platform. Working together with Mount Street, EPA will offer a broad menu of services to the credit and asset finance markets in Europe.”
