General Motors has opted to retain ownership of its commercial property lending business, GMAC Commercial Mortgage.
The business was set to be sold to Deutsche Bank for around £1bn, but GMAC made a surprise announcement this week that it had pulled the sale.
GMAC had decided to sell in order to reduce the capital commitments needed by the property lending business and to allow GMAC CM access to new sources of capital.
This week it said: “The overall capital markets environment has improved considerably from the difficult environment in 2002 and early 2003.”
GMAC chairman and president Eric Feldstein said: “We now believe that alternative large-scale funding mechanisms should be available without requiring a sale of the business.”
As the world’s largest commercial property lender, GMAC CM manages a loan book of $250bn and lent $20bn in the nine months to September.
It hit the UK market just over a year ago, and has lent more than £500m since, with the intent of securitising the loans.
