Yesterday, shares in National Australia Bank Ltd. (ASX: NAB) closed higher after the bank announced it would sell GBP 625 million of its UK commercial loans to private-equity firm Cerberus Global Investors.
The transaction will reduce the amount of outstanding bad UK commercial property loans to GBP 2.38 billion and free up GBP 127 million for NAB.
NAB has been plagued by its UK exposure for many years and shareholders have been forced to watch as rival banks, such as Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ASX: ANZ) and the broader S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) (INDEXASX:XJO) significantly outperformed the bank's share price gains over the past decade. Despite offering a big dividend yield (currently forecast at 8.3% grossed-up).
The loans it sold are either in default, near, or passed maturity. Incoming CEO Andrew Thorburn described the deal as one of, "substantial de-risking" and hinted the bank was continuing to look into more sales of non-core assets.
Although the deal will only improve NAB's capital position slightly, further sales and a run-down of the portfolio could have a meaningful impact on NAB's earnings performance in coming years.
Buy, Hold or Sell?
I've previously said I wouldn't be tempted to hit the 'Buy' button on NAB shares until I see a meaningful change in the bank's UK exposure. Whilst yesterday's announcement is a step in the right direction, I want to see more like it before committing to a purchase.