Speaking at the bank’s annual general meeting yesterday, NAB chairman Michael Chaney said over the year the bank continued its “successful run-down” in its UK commercial real estate (CRE) portfolio.
“Part of the portfolio was sold during the year and we are pleased to report earlier this week the sale of the majority of the remaining book,” Mr Chaney said.
The remaining size of the portfolio, following NAB’s sale of £1.2 billion of high-risk UK real estate loans to Cerberus Global Investors, now sits at £836 million, compared to the original balance of £5.6 billion in October 2012.
NAB’s decision to sell its UK banking business follows its “disappointing” full-year cash earnings for the year ending September 2014, which saw a 9.8 per cent slump due to conduct charges in its UK banking operations.
“The sale of these high-risk loans in the NAB UK Commercial Real Estate portfolio is another important milestone in our strategy of reducing our low returning legacy assets,” NAB Group chief executive Andrew Thorburn said.
“Pleasingly the remaining NAB UK CRE loans are largely strong performing loans, and we will look at other options to manage this small remaining portfolio,” he said.
The sale follows the bank’s announcement in July where it sold £625 million of its UK commercial real estate portfolio.
