Spain’s Santander to buy stake in US real estate portfolio for $1.1 billion

MADRID (Reuters) -Spain’s Santander (BME:) on Wednesday said it bought 20% of a U.S. real estate portfolio for $1.1 billion from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which will retain 80% in a joint venture with the bank.

Under the deal, Santander will service 100% of the assets in the portfolio.

The $9 billion portfolio of New York based multifamily real estate assets was in the hands of the FDIC following the failure of Signature Bank (OTC:) in the United States earlier this year.

Santander said that the deal would be accretive starting in 2024 and consume approximately two basis points of Santander Group CET1, to be paid back within three years.

Santander Executive Chair Ana Botin said in a statement that the bank “is a major participant in the U.S. multifamily space” with a $13.5 billion multifamily real estate portfolio.

The Spanish lender said that the U.S. remained a strategic market for the bank.

Last month, Botin said that the bank did not need acquisitions to grow profitably for many years but would analyse small add-on acquisitions.

As part of a broader strategy to expand in the U.S., Botin told the Reuters NEXT conference in New York in November that the bank was planning to deepen the lender’s corporate banking presence.

The portfolio of loans in the joint venture consists of three pools of rent-controlled and rent-stabilized multifamily loans, Santander said.

The bank was advised in this transaction by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Davis Polk and Chain Bridge Partners.