Dutch gov’t sells SNS Reaal real estate division for €900 million

The Dutch state sold Propertize, SNS Reaal's real estate division, for 895.3 million euros to investment company Lone Star and JP Morgan Chase, Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said in a letter to parliament. The deal still has to be approved by some supervisors, ANP reports. Dijsselbloem announced his intention to sell Propertize in October last year. He set two conditions for the sale - the price must be reasonable and the risk to the government must not increase. It seems that this deal meets conditions. The current Propertize came into existence after the government nationalized SNS Reaal on February 1st, 2013. Back then Propertize was called SNS Property Finance. It was turned into an independent real estate organization on December 31st of that year. When taking over SNS Reaal, the state also took over 2.35 billion euros of Propertize's debt. Lone Star will pay that same amount, plus accrued interest, over to the state through Propertize, according to ANP. Earlier this week Dijsselbloem also announced his intention to keep SNS Bank, the only part of SNS Reaal still in state hands should this acquisition go through, in State hands for a while longer.