29.01.2022
State-owned asset management company Kedipes announced on Friday that it paid out €60 million in state aid in the fourth quarter of last year, with state aid payments reaching €250 million for all of 2021.
According to the company’s quarterly report, state aid payments to Kedipes since its inception in 2018 have reached a total of 570 million euros. The report also says that cash receipts in the fourth quarter reached 115.5 million euros, up 28.3% from the previous quarter, when 90 million euros were raised. This figure represents the highest quarterly inflow ever since the coronavirus pandemic.
Kedipes’ cash inflow for the whole of 2021 totaled €403 million, reflecting a 29% year-over-year increase, with a total of €311.8 million raised in 2020.
In terms of the company’s revenue for 2021, €394.8 was generated from lending and asset management. This represents 5.4% of the company’s loan and real estate portfolio, with the portfolio having a nominal value of EUR 7.3 billion as at 31 December 2020.
Meanwhile, fourth-quarter operating and asset management expenses were €33.4 million, up 30.7% from €25.7 million in the third quarter. The company said the increase was primarily attributable to staff salaries, which were impacted by the signing of the September 2021 collective bargaining agreement, which made retroactive benefit payments effective July 1, 2020.
“Cash inflows have exceeded the company’s estimates as they are above the targets set in the business plan thanks to the new framework agreement between Kedipes and Altamira,” said Kedipes Chairman Lambros Papadopoulos, explaining that according to the agreement, the remuneration of the asset management company is variable and during largely depends on the effectiveness of asset management.
“While the good results of 2021 were positively affected by the stability of the legal framework for enforcement, any negative changes to both this framework and other existing or proposed laws regarding Kedipes and credit companies or asset management firms in general, will significantly affect the company’s ability to fulfill its business plan, as well as its ability to fully repay the state aid due,” added Papadopoulos, commenting on recent discussions in the House of Representatives about imposing various restrictions on such companies.
The chairman of Kedipes said that finding sustainable restructuring solutions with its clients remains a strategic goal for the company, saying this is reflected in the current amount of the completed restructuring, which has reached 1.1 billion euros in total.
