LONDON-British bank Abbey National has unveiled plans to review the asset portfolios of two subsidiaries--Scottish Mutual and Scottish Provident--with a view to selling. A statement by Abbey says that CB Richard Ellis had been retained to conduct the review and identify which parts of the portfolio, including retail, offices and light industrial, may be brought to market. The statement adds that the sale is likely to be in one job lot and that proceeds will be reinvested in cash, equities and possibly property shares.

Industry sources suggests that senior Abbey directors believe commercial real estate has peaked and selling at this stage in the cycle could raise up to euro 2 billion ($2.6 billion). They also point out that Scottish Mutual and Scottish Provident first approached the market about a huge property sale last November.

The move follows the decision by Prudential, which manages more than euro 16.3 billion ($21 billion) of property, mainly for its life funds, to cut its UK exposure by euro 739 million ($950.1 million) and increase its overseas property assets by euro 2.2 billion ($2.9 billion).

And last year, Henderson Global Investors set up an investment fund to enable three closed-life funds to reduce their property exposure. Henderson Caspar, the new fund, contained euro 1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) of buildings formerly owned by NPI, London Life and Pearl, which were part of HHG, Henderson's parent company. The group has since sold the funds.