Sabal Financial Buys $121.5M Loan Portfolio

Sabal Financial Group, LP, a CA-based financial services management firm, announced this week that it had acquired a $121.5 million portfolio from a southeast-based regional bank. The portfolio of 44 performing and non-performing commercial real estate loans incorporate commercial real estate properties and land in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Missouri. Sabal will provide loan servicing and asset management for the portfolio.

"There continues to be a significant need for banks to clear their balance sheets of problematic loans," said Pat Jackson, CEO of Sabal Financial Group. "This particular acquisition strengthens our already robust presence in the southeast region."

In June of this year, Sabal established a builder lending program to fill the void left by community banks exiting for-sale residential financing. Sabal Financial Group offers non-recourse acquisition and development (A&D) and construction loans for homebuilders in California, Seattle, and Portland.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Lloyds Sells Australian Property Loans to Blackstone, Morgan Stanley JV

In a statement on Wednesday, Lloyds Banking Group announced that it was selling a portfolio of Australian corporate real estate loans to AET SPV Management, a joint venture sponsored by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing and Blackstone, for £388 million (or $252.4 million) in cash. The distressed property loans are reportedly valued at £809 million ($526.3 million). A Zacks Investment Research summary of the deal reports that the portfolio comprises nearly 60-70 commercial property loans in Queensland, Melbourne and Canberra.

The proceeds from the portfolio, which recorded losses of £183 million in 2011, will be used to pay down Lloyd's debt. The loans were acquired by Lloyds when it purchased HBOS in 2008, including the Bank of Scotland and its international unit, BOS International.

Dave Smith, Chief Executive of Lloyds International, said in a statement: "This transaction further de-risks the Australian business, and results in a cumulative 92% reduction of our real estate non-performing loan portfolio." British taxpayers hold a 40% stake in Lloyds.

According to a Bloomberg article, European banks are trying to sell real estate assets as they seek to meet stricter capital rules. Lloyds, which has cut more than 30,000 jobs since its 20 billion-pound taxpayer rescue in 2008, last month raised its asset-reduction plan for the year by 5 billion pounds to at least 30 billion pounds and expects to meet its 2014 target a year early.

With the acquisition, Blackstone will add to its already sizable real estate portfolio, which includes Hilton Worldwide, reported the New York Times. Last year, the firm acquired roughly 600 malls across the United States for $9.4 billion from the heavily indebted Australian company Centro Properties.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

MRC Acquires $29M Loan Portfolio

Madison Realty Capital (MRC), a commercial real estate investment fund, announced this week that it had acquired a 15-note portfolio from a regional savings bank with an aggregate principal balance of approximately $28.7 million. The loan portfolio, consisting of 15 notes throughout New York City, is secured by 11 properties in Manhattan and 14 in Brooklyn, comprised of 245 residential units and 12 commercial spaces, and originated between 2006 and 2009.

"This transaction supports MRC's strategy of acquiring non-performing and sub-performing loan portfolios and then applying our vertically integrated platform, which includes servicing, property management and asset management, to maximize the underlying value of the assets," said Joshua Zegen, Co-Founder and Managing Principal of MRC.

"The credit crunch has raised the bar for everyone," Zegen told GlobeSt.com in 2008. "We are seeing more opportunity. That is the nice thing about the bridge market—you can underwrite according to what is happening in the market on that day." He added, "We are seeing more transaction volume than ever before, because we are one of the few players active in the marketplace right now."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Mariner Real Estate Buys Stake in $101M Loan Portfolio

Mariner Real Estate Management, a real estate investment management firm based in Kansas, announced this week that it had closed on the purchase of approximately $101 million in real estate loans in partnership with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The portfolio is the second structured purchase of commercial real estate debt the company has executed with the FDIC. The first joint acquisition was in September 2010, when it paid $52 million for a 40% stake in an FDIC loan portfolio with an unpaid balance of $762 million. That investment, according to a Kansas City Business Journal article, had a seven-year life span, and Mariner Real Estate hopes for an overall return on the investment of 15-25%.

The acquired portfolio covers the unpaid balance of 62 performing and non-performing commercial loans located in Washington, Idaho and Utah. According to Mariner, the company paid an initial 25% stake in the limited liability company formed by the partnership with approximately $13.6 million. Since 2009, Mariner has acquired 1,000 plus loans with an aggregate unpaid principal balance of $1.1 billion.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Sabal Acquires $385M Loan Portfolio

Sabal Financial Group announced at the end of last month that it had acquired a $385 million portfolio of loans from the from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) according to a National Real Estate Investor article. The portfolio includes performing and non-performing loans, a sale mandated by the FDIC for the assets of 42 failed banking institutions. The portfolio is secured by properties across the United States with the largest concentration in the southeast and Midwest.

"This is our third FDIC transaction and it brings our total number of assets under management to approximately $3 billion," said R. Patterson Jackson, Chief Executive Officer of Sabal Financial Group. "Sabal is uniquely qualified to oversee the management and work out of small balance distressed assets of this type with a model that is scalable to handle portfolios of this magnitude."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Wells Fargo Buying $3.3B in Loans

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, has agreed to sell a portfolio of 61 performing loans worth $3.3 billion to Wells Fargo & Co. according to an Orlando Business Journal article. Wells Fargo said it closed on 25 of the loans, with a face value of $1.5 billion, last week and expects the balance of the loans to close in the fourth quarter.

Wells Fargo is Central Florida's third-largest bank, with 59 branches and $5.9 billion in deposits. Wells Fargo and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc also sold about $1 billion of bonds backed by commercial mortgages after relative yields on the debt fell reported Businessweek at the beginning of the month.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

$1.8B London Loan Portfolio Sold

Kennedy Wilson, an international real estate investment and services company headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, announced this week that it had entered into an agreement to purchase a loan portfolio from Bank of Ireland for $1.8 billion according to a Bloomberg report. "The biggest opportunities are in Europe," said Chief Executive Officer William McMorrow in a telephone interview. "The U.S. banks have all raised capital and they're not under as much pressure right now to sell assets." The purchase will close in two phases, with $1.4 billion completed on Friday, October 21 and an additional $400 million expected to close at the end of November.

Mary Ricks, executive vice chair of Kennedy Wilson, said of the deal that the "Kennedy Wilson team did an excellent job on this complex transaction, and we believe that this closing will serve as a base for the company's further expansion in Europe."

About 70% of the loans are secured on office, apartment and retail properties in London reported The Irish Times. Bank of Ireland disclosed the transaction when it announced earlier this month that it had deleveraged the bank by disposing of about €5 billion of loans – half of it non-core loans – at a discount of 9% on their face value.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Sabal Acquires $212M Loan Portfolio

Sabal Financial Group, a financial services firm formerly named Milestone Asset Resolution Co., announced this week that it had acquired a $212 portfolio from an unnamed major Midwest retail bank. While details of the purchase were not disclosed, Sabal stated that the portfolio included over 100 loans, both performing and non-performing, and was primarily secured by retail, office and industrial properties, and land with major concentrations in in Wisconsin, Illinois and Florida.

"We are currently responding to an influx of asset valuation assignments and loan portfolio acquisition opportunities," said R. Patterson ("Pat") Jackson, Chief Executive Officer of Sabal Financial Group. "This particular acquisition extends our presence in both the Midwest and Southeastern United States."

Sabal Financial is responsible for loan servicing and asset management of the portfolio according to a GlobeSt.com article. Along with the portfolio acquisition, Sabal has added commercial real estate veteran Kevin McKenzie as a portfolio manager for the company's growing commercial real estate portfolio.

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.

Starwood Cap Acquires $157M CRE Portfolio

Starwood Capital Group announced this week that it had completed the acquisition of a non-performing commercial loan portfolio from a major Midwest Regional bank. The portfolio, with an outstanding principal balance of $157 million, was purchased for 40 cents on the dollar and consists of 137 commercial loans with concentrations in Florida, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio.

"This acquisition is another example of Starwood Capital Group's ability to create value in today's competitive real estate market while building on the momentum we have achieved with Starwood Global Opportunity Fund VIII this year," said Chris Graham, Managing Director at Starwood Capital Group. "Our real estate expertise and experience resolving and managing underperforming loans allows us to maximize returns for Starwood investors."

For more news and information visit Blumberg Capital Partners.