ING Sells $1.6B of CRE Loans to Wells Fargo

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Michael Shields, of ING

As part of the ongoing divestment of its U.S. commercial real estate lending business, ING Real Estate Finance (USA) L.L.C. has agreed to sell 29 CRE loans in the United States, with a total remaining balance of $1.6 billion, to Wells Fargo Bank N.A., ING REF announced Friday.

As part of ING Group’s Back to Basics strategy, in 2010 the company’s real estate activities started to be split and individual entities were transferred internally, divested or wound down. ING REF announced in September 2012 that it would manage down its U.S. property-lending business.

The portfolio being sold consists entirely of performing loans and represents about half of ING REF’s total U.S. loan portfolio.

“This divestment is a result of the successful execution of our strategy to capitalize on current robust U.S. market conditions to generate strong interest in the loan portfolio among a high-quality pool of potential buyers,” Michael Shields, Managing Director and Head of ING Real Estate Finance Western Europe, UK, USA and Structured Products, said in a release.

“[A]dding high-quality, performing loans to our portfolio is consistent with our business strategy and risk management practices,” Mark Myers, Head of Commercial Real Estate at Wells Fargo, said in the same release. “Many of our existing customers have loans in this portfolio as well, and we look forward to meeting the needs of those customers while strengthening our commercial real estate business through this acquisition.”

Morrison & Foerster L.L.P. real estate partners Chris Delson and Thomas McGovern provided legal counsel to ING REF in the transaction. Wells Fargo was represented by Dechert LLP.