Commerzbank has closed this week the sale of a portfolio of performing loans, some of which are linked to real estate assets in the Citylife district in Milan, for a price of more than 85% of the circa EUR 280m loan gross book value, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

The buyers of the portfolio, dubbed Project Borromini, are Deutsche Bank and Davidson Kempner, as reported, with Deutsche Bank buying the share of loans on the Citylife assets, the sources said.

The loans are part of the Eurohypo legacy, which parent company Commerzbank is disposing of in Italy.

Clifford Chance acted as a legal advisor of the sale side. Ashurst and Linklaters were legal advisors of the buy sides. First Growth – FGREF was the servicer for the portfolio, and the new servicer will be Prelios Credit Servicing, the sources said. CBRE and JLL did real estate evaluations of the portfolio.

Back in 2006, Eurohypo provided a EUR 1.8bn loan for the development of the new district Citylife, in the former area of Milan Fair, the Italian press reported at the time. The loan was later refinanced. Buildings of the district have been designed by architects such as Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki, and Daniel Libeskind.

by Alessia Pirolo

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