WASHINGTON, DC-Several investors have banded together to acquire two FDIC portfolios that hold more than 700 commercial real estate loans with an unpaid balance of $341 million, which originated from 14 now-failed financial institutions. The firms are Cogsville Group, Colony Capital, WL Ross & Co. LLC, Invesco Ltd. and Mount Kellett Capital. 

The companies did not discuss pricing other than to say that properties in portfolio that are concentrated in the Western US were purchased at 60% of the unpaid principal balance. Properties in the portfolio that are concentrated in the Northern US were purchased at 27% of the unpaid balance. The portfolio consists of both performing and non-performing loans. Cogsville did not return a call to GlobeSt.com in time for publication. 

The transactions are the second and third public-private purchases by Cogsville and Colony. Also participating in the transaction was Milestone Advisors LLC, which was hired as a financial advisor to the FDIC on the sale of these assets.

This structured sale is illustrative of the FDIC’s push to make these portfolios more affordable to smaller investors, Tom Galli, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig, tells GlobeSt.com. He worked on this transaction as well as five out of the last six FDIC structured transactions that involved commercial real estate and land loan portfolios.

What the FDIC has been doing is making smaller pools of loans available, Galli explains. Now it has gone a step further by making those smaller portfolios available in separate pools within the portfolio.