LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - U.S. hedge fund Cerberus hasbought a 1 billion euro ($1.4 billion) book of commercial realestate loans from Lloyds Banking Group at a 21 percentdiscount to their nominal value, the UK bank said on Friday.
The sale effectively completes Lloyds' sale of non-corecommercial real estate in Europe, as part of a shrinking of itsbalance sheet and restructuring of the bank since it needed ataxpayer rescue five years ago.
Lloyds said the loans, mainly in the Nordic region, Germanyand France, were sold to Promontoria Holding, an affiliate ofCerberus Institutional Partners.
They had a nominal value of 1.09 billion pounds ($1.8billion) and were sold for 1.03 billion euros, or 860 millionpounds.
The portfolio generated a 7 million pound loss last year andLloyds said the deal would have a positive capital impact on thebank. The deal is expected to completed next month.