Alvarez & Marsal helps Spain's state-rescued banks repel real estate

The Spanish government has hired Alvarez & Marsal to manage the real estate assets of Spain's state-rescued banks. In order to comply with rules of the EU and hence receive European aid, the relevant real estate assets must be separated into a new business entity. The entity should be up and running by November. Alvarez & Marsal won the lucrative assignment by beating five other world-class consulting firms.

Spain has asked for up to €100 million in European rescue funds aimed at patching up losses in its weakest banks.

Several consulting firms aid Spain

Over the past months, Spain has hired an army of external consultants to help solve the financial mess it is in. Before the summer it hired consultants from Roland Berger and Oliver Wyman to analyze the Spanish banking sector. The consultants concluded that the Spanish banks would need up to €60 billion to safeguard their operations. Parallel to the analysis of Roland Berger and Oliver Wyman, the Spanish government asked the “Big Four” accounting and consulting firms, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young to do detailed audits of the banking sector. To the embarrassment of the government these audits had to be delayed due to holidays of officials during the summer