Wells Fargo & Co. said it will buy a $3.3 billion commercial real-estate portfolio from the failed Anglo Irish Bank Corp. as the San Francisco bank continues to grow its commercial real estate loans.
Wells Fargo said about 25 of the 61 loans, worth $1.5 billion, were closed on Tuesday. The bank expects to acquire the rest of the loans from Irish Bank Resolution, formerly known as Anglo Irish, in the fourth quarter.
The deal is the latest in a series of portfolio sales by major Irish banks, which have been retreating from the commercial real estate market. They were big commercial property lenders during the real estate boom, and have been instructed by Irish regulators to sell many foreign holdings in an attempt to raise capital back home.
Irish Bank said last week it was preparing to sell the first part of its $9.2 billion loan book in the U.S., adding that the transaction marked a "significant milestone" in resolving Ireland's deep debt crisis. The proceeds will be used to repay loans, called exceptional liquidity assistance, or ELA, the Irish central bank has pumped into Anglo Irish, IBRC said then.
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo, along with Blackstone Group LP, last week reached a deal with Allied Irish Banks PLC to buy a pool of about $600 million in U.S. commercial property loans. Wells Fargo also purchased about $1.4 billion in U.S. loan holdings from Bank of Ireland in October and about $500 million in loans bought from Allied Irish this spring.
