The number of parties vying to buy the €5.2bn (£4.4bn) Dutch real estate bad bank Propertize has narrowed to two.
Goldman Sachs with Cerberus Capital Management and Valad Europe are competing against Lone Star and JP Morgan with Mount Street Partners.
A preferred consortium is due to be selected by the end of May.
Lone Star and JP Morgan have a history of pairing up to buy large loan portfolios.
The pair bought Commerzbank’s €2.4bn pan-European loan portfolio in June last year. They also bought the €4.4bn Spanish loan book, dubbed Project Octopus, from Commerz in 2014.
The €1.9bn of performing loans in the Propertize portfolio are held against property of which 80% is in Holland, 7.2% in Germany with the rest widely dispersed across Europe.
The portfolio held against the performing loans is 34% residential, 31% retail, 15% offices and 15% industrial or logistics. The remainder is mixed or other uses.
The sale also includes €3.3bn of non-performing loans and €185m of real estate assets.
Propertize is run by 170 staff and the team is generally well rated by bidders. It is possible that employees could be taken on by any successful bidder.
The portfolio is being sold through Lazard.
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