Barclays Bank has agreed to sell its FFr 1.5bn French property loan book to a consortium of US investors led by Cargill and Lehman Brothers. Other interested bidders are thought to have included UK property company Imry, owned by Barclays, and Goldman Sachs.
The purchasers are believed to be paying between 50% and 60% of the face value of the loans, which are secured on a mixed bag of properties, mainly in the Paris region. The transaction is complicated by the fact that Barclay’s involvement in many of the properties is via syndicated loans or joint venture special-purpose companies.
Most of the loans were to development companies for residential and office schemes around Paris. Bankers Trust is advising Barclays.
