NEW YORK—At an auction here, NCUA—acting as the liquidating agent of failed First Jersey Credit Union—sold four New York City taxi medallions for $180,000 each.
“While there were numerous onlookers at the auction, there was only one bidder,” stated Keith Leggett, the former senior vice president and senior economist at the ABA.
As CUToday.info reported here, the auctions taking place are critically important in determining how the market now values taxi medallions, an issue very important to credit unions that are holding the loans as collateral on loans.
Separately, in an auction of 139 taxi medallions once owned by Evgeny "Gene" Freidman, who was once known as New York's "Taxi King," drew a stalking horse bid for 131 of the medallions of $22.7 million or $170,000 per medallion, and was accepted by the trustee.
The next acceptable bid for the 131 medallions will be $23,160,800 or $176,800 per medallion. The other eight medallions will be placed into a separate bidding pool. The auction is scheduled for June 14.
As CUToday.info and Crain’s New York recently reported, Bay Ridge FCU in March took possession of 15 medallions following an auction with a $200,000 minimum bid that drew no takers. It is now offering them to owner-drivers for about $275,000, with 4% financing, Crain’s said.
The monthly payments on the loan would come to around $1,500, said Bay Ridge CEO Anthony Grigos. Grigos told Crain’s New York that is a “manageable number, given the average gross revenue of $85,000 a year for the owner-drivers in the lender's portfolio.”
To date, BRFCU has received eight offers it considered serious, of which four were deemed acceptable risks.
On June 11 NCUA will be auctioning four medallions it owns after taking control of First Jersey Credit Union.