Bank of America has sold its last stake in one of Merrill Lynch’s boom time European investment vehicles, the Bosporus Real Estate Fund.
The bank, which now owns Merrill Lynch, completed an off-market deal to sell the remaining 28% slice in the €204m (£167m) fund to UK & European Investments.
The property investment vehicle of the Lewis Trust Group is understood to have negotiated a discount to the €50m face value of the portfolio of limited partnership interests in central and eastern Europe.
The deal increases UK & European’s holding in the fund from 5% to 33%.
Blackstone, which bought the bulk of Merrill Lynch’s real estate investment in Europe, the US and South America in 2011, is the other major shareholder in the fund.
For UK & European the purchase forms part of the firm’s expansion of its special situation business in Europe, which includes a German non-performing loan investment platform.
bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
