Postbank to put property portfolio up for sale

Deutsche Postbank is putting up for sale a majority of its property portfolio, a spokesman for Germany’s biggest retail bank said on Tuesday.

He said the bank was evaluating the disposal of a packet called of 25 of its office buildings, confirming a story released by the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper on Tuesday ahead of publication on Wednesday.

The reason for the sale is that real estate management is not a core business for the bank, the spokesman said. A decision about the sale should come in the second half of the year.

The newspaper reported the buildings owned by Postbank were worth between 700 and 800 million euros (USD 1.1-USD 1.2 billion).

Postbank has hired Morgan Stanley, which has previously managed a real-estate sale for parent Deutsche Post, to handle the transaction, according to the report.

In April, Deutsche Post sold property worth a billion euros to U.S. Investor Lone Star LS.N.