US private equity group Blackstone in partnership with Magic Real Estate has closed the purchase of the real estate platform of Spain's state-owned bank CatalunyaCaixa for less than €40 mln.

US private equity group Blackstone in partnership with Magic Real Estate has closed the purchase of the real estate platform of Spain's state-owned bank CatalunyaCaixa for less than €40 mln.

Blackstone will keep on the 150 workers at CXI, which manages €9 bn of foreclosed properties and soured loans owned by CatalunyaCaixa and bad bank Sareb.

Eduard Mendiluce, current CEO of CatalunyaCaixa Inmobiliaria, will continue as CEO of CXI, the company said in a statement.

The sale is part of CatalunyaCaixa's strategy to focus operations on retail banking and sell off non-core assets as part of a restructuring plan approved by Brussels in late 2011 when the lender was nationalised to stave off collapse. The government is expected to put the group up for auction in the coming months.

CXI sold or let 6,000 properties worth €680 mln in 2013. The servicing platform is active in Spain, Portugal and Poland.

This is the latest real estate platform to be sold by financial institutions in Spain. In November last year, Spain’s Banco Popular signed a preliminary agreement to sell its real estate asset management unit to a consortium of Kennedy Wilson and Värde Partners for an undisclosed amount.

In a statement to stock market regulator CNMV, Madrid-based Banco Popular said the operation involves around €9.35 bn worth of loans as well as another €6.5 bn of assets managed by the firm, known as Aliseda.

Spanish bank Popular appointed KPMG earlier in 2013 to sell its asset management arm in an effort to take advantage of the increased liquidity in the sector.

The move followed the successful sale in September 2013 of Caixa's real estate arm to TPG for around €185 mln. TPG Capital emerged ahead of bidders Bridgepoint, Fortress and Starwood to acquire a 51% interest in Caixa bank's Servihabitat Gestión Inmobiliaria.

Bankia, Spain's third-largest banking group, has recently also completed the sale of its real estate servicing arm to private equity group Cerberus for around €90 mln. Bankia Habitat manages a €5.5 bn portfolio across the country consisting of real estate assets worth €2.9 bn and another €2.6 bn of development loans.

Similarly, Banco Santander hired PwC to sell Altamira, which manages over €3.6 bn of property assets in the country. The lender is said to have reached an agreement on the sale to Apollo European Principal Finance Fund II.