Lloyds Banking Group’s long-awaited second UK loan book sale is to be launched imminently.
The bank has appointed JP Morgan Cazenove to sell the portfolio and is set to start approaching investors about a potential deal.
The portfolio is known as Project Royal II and follows the sale of the bank’s first UK portfolio, which was offloaded to US private equity firm Lone Star last year.
Interested buyers – likely to include private equity firms such as Lone Star, Blackstone, and Cerberus – will be asked to sign non-disclosure agreements.
The first loan book had a face value of around £900m, but the current portfolio is understood to be smaller at around £600m.
The first Royal portfolio featured more than 250 separate loans to around 35 borrowers. Lone Star bought the portfolio at a discount of around 40% of face value.
bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
