The battle to land Eurohypo’s £4bn (€4.7bn)UK loan book has entered its final phase with a Wells Fargo/Lone Star joint venture selected as the preferred bidder.
But an insider said that it could still be weeks before the deal is done as the details are nailed down.
One of the reasons for the combined bid was that Wells Fargo was planning to take the performing loans and Lone Star the non-performing ones.
One of the rival bids was also combined, from Starwood, which wanted the non-performing loans, and Pimco, which wanted the performing ones, but this now appears to have been rejected along with single bids from Apollo and Blackstone, both for the non-performing loans.
Sources said these last bids were turned down because Commerzbank was keen to sell the loan book as one package.
The loan book consists of 70 loans, with an average unexpired term of three years.
The performing loans are expected to be bought at a 5%-10% discount, with the non-performing loans part discounted by 60%.
Eurohypo was renamed Hypothekenbank Frankfurt last August as part of Commerzbank’s move of the subsidiary to its non-core division.
