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Farmers have started to receive confirmation letters that their loans have been sold by Rabobank.
As revealed by this newspaper, some 1,800 loans with agricultural loans are understood to have been sold by Rabobank as part of an €800m sale to investment bank Goldman Sachs and distressed debt firms CarVal Investors and Cabot Financial Services announced on 12 April.
A letter to one farmer seen by the Irish Farmers Journal informs him that his farm loan, including all rights and obligations under the loan will be transferred to Pepper Finance Ireland in two months. Pepper has previously been used by Goldman Sachs to service loan portfolios in Ireland.
“Pepper will hold legal title and service the loan for the benefit of Strandhill Funding DAC,” the letter states.
Investigation shows that Strandhill Funding was set up 5 April 2019, seven days before the announcement of the loan sale. The company shares an Eircode at 32 Molesworth Street, Dublin 2 with approximately 1,090 other companies.
The directors of Strandhill Funding are listed as Sean O’Sullivan and Ronan Carroll. Both men are also listed as directors of Tramore Funding DAC and Banna Funding DAC who share an address with Strandhill Funding.
Tramore and Banna were entities established and financed by Goldman Sachs to deal with the €1.9bn portfolio they bought from KBC Ireland last year.
The farmer has yet to receive any contact from Pepper or Strandhill Funding but the letter from Rabobank informs him: “Your obligations under the terms of your loan agreement are unchanged and you should continue to meet your payment obligations.”
Pepper has told the Irish Farmers Journal that they work with all loans on a "case-by-case basis to identify the best sustainable long-term solutions, tailored to their individual situations."
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