Atlantic Union Bank has closed the sale of about $2 billion in performing commercial real estate loans to Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies, the company announced Thursday.
The CRE loan sale, primarily covering locations in the Washington, D.C., metro area, was announced as part of Virginia-based Atlantic Union’s merger with Sandy Spring Bancorp, which closed in April. The lender retained customer-facing servicing responsibilities and sold the loan portfolio at a percentage of par value in the low-90s.
“After closing our acquisition of Sandy Spring, we have been focused on integration and execution,” Atlantic Union CEO John Asbury said in a statement. “The loan sale transaction reduces our CRE concentration and frees up capacity for potential future growth.”
Blackstone, an alternative asset manager with nearly $76 billion of investor capital under management, has snapped up $20 billion of CRE loan portfolios over the past two years. The acquisition includes a roughly 20% stake in the $17 billion Signature Bank CRE debt portfolio.
“This transaction demonstrates the breadth of our market-leading platform and deep expertise providing solutions to financial institutions for their commercial real estate portfolios,” Tim Johnson, global head of Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies, said in a statement Thursday.
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