(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Inc. has bought interests in a portfolio of infrastructure loans from Banco Santander SA worth $1 billion, according to a statement seen by Bloomberg News.
The portfolio is made up of loans that are financing assets in digital infrastructure such as data centers, as well as other areas such as renewables and transportation, according to the note from Blackstone.
The deal is “consistent with our approach to working with leading financial institutions on large-scale, long-term, efficient solutions that support their capital goals,” said Robert Horn, global head of infrastructure and asset-based credit at Blackstone, a unit which manages over $80 billion of assets, in the statement.
Santander has embarked on a push to improve returns on capital. The Spanish lender is also marketing significant risk transfers linked to more than €20 billion ($21 billion) of loans out of its global operations including the US, Germany, the UK and Mexico.
The lender has moved close to €40 billion of risk-weighted assets off its books in the first nine months of the year, Chief Financial Officer Jose Garcia Cantera said on an Oct. 29 earnings call. That compares with around €30 billion in the whole of 2023.
Private Debt
Marcel Patiño, global head of private debt mobilization at Santander, said the bank is looking to streamline its balance sheet while supporting further growth as a “leading advisor and arranger in the structured finance space.”
Though banks still dominate much of the infrastructure credit industry, regulations are making it more costly to hold these sorts of assets on their balance sheets. This has opened a window for private capital firms such as Blackstone — that aren’t subject to the same regulation — to hold the loans the banks originate.
Other banks are also selling infrastructure loans. ABN Amro Bank NV is offloading a portfolio of about €3 billion of infrastructure loans, Bloomberg has reported.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.