JPMORGAN CHASE and Wells Fargo and are among banks that made final bids to buy portions of Anglo Irish Bank’s $9.65 billion (€6.7 billion) of US property loans, according to three people with knowledge of the sales.
The lenders are looking to acquire pieces of the $4.52 billion of performing loans Anglo is shedding as part of its wind down, said the three, who asked not to be identified as the talks are private.
Investor groups led by private-equity firms Blackstone Group, working with Deutsche Bank, and Lone Star Funds also submitted offers for parts of the portfolio, which include $5.13 billion of subperforming and non-performing debt, the sources said.
“Banks like Wells and JPMorgan can afford to pay more than a non-bank for the performing loans,” said Ben Thypin, director of market analysis for property- research firm Real Capital Analytics. “Private-equity firms like Blackstone and Lone Star can bid aggressively on the non-performing pieces because they have a large workout infrastructure in place.”
Anglo’s US portfolio includes loans on buildings from Manhattan to Beverly Hills, California.
Final bids were submitted this week and a winner is expected to be chosen by early next week.
Anglo’s board of directors was expected to discuss the final bids at a meeting yesterday in advance of today’s release of first-half results. – (Bloomberg)
