Commerzbank Plans to Sell Spanish Property Loans

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Commerzbank, Germany's second-largest bank, plans to sell more than €4 billion ($5.5 billion) of Spanish property loans by June 30, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources. 

The bank has set a March 2 deadline for indicative bids submitted by buyers for the remaining property loans in Spain, called "Project Octopus."

Commerzbank has been working on reducing its real estate financing arm and its risk-weighed assets. The bank received an €18 billion bailout from the government during the financial crisis. 

Earlier this month the bank announced it had sold €710 million worth of bad Spanish property loans. 

"There will be a lot of demand for the loans as there's a lot of pressure on the large distressed investors to do this kind of deal," Fernando Acuna, founder of real estate advisory firm Aura REE, told Bloomberg. "This is probably the only large commercial real estate loan book which will trade in Spain during this cycle."