SAN FRANCISCO-ING Real Estate Finance (USA) LLC said Friday that it has reached an agreement to sell 29 US CRE loans with a total outstanding balance of $1.6 billion to Wells Fargo Bank. Terms were not disclosed.

This past spring, the Wall Street Journal reported that New York City-based INGREF planned to put about $2.5 billion of performing CRE loans up for sale as it continues to wind down its US property-lending business. Citing unnamed sources, the WSJ reported that INGREF expected to sell the loans at face value or higher.

For INGREF, the performing loan sale, representing about half its domestic CRE portfolio, “is a result of the successful execution of our strategy to capitalize on current robust US market conditions to generate strong interest in the loan portfolio among a high-quality pool of potential buyers,” says Michael Shields, managing director and head of INGREF Western Europe, UK, USA and Structured Products. “As ING sharpens the focus of its Real Estate Finance business, we will continue to deliver tailored real estate financing solutions in our other Real Estate Finance markets.” The company announced this past September that it would manage down the US CRE loan portfolio.