A German commercial real estate lending bank plans to exit its almost $5B portfolio, announcing that it is willing to take a loss for the year to escape what it has characterized as the “poisonous” volatility of U.S. economic policy.
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Deutsche Pfandbriefbank will discontinue its U.S. business and either wind down, securitize or sell its $4.6B portfolio, it announced last week. The bank said it now intends to fully focus on Europe.
The action comes just a month after PBB said it would not enter into any new business and halt new lending within the United States.
PBB CEO Kay Wolf in May cited “inconsistent” actions from the Trump administration, which he said would increase inflation risk and keep volatility high, according to Reuters.
“This volatility is poison for the business activity of long-term property financing, it is poison for investors, it is also poison for banks, and that is why we are looking at these options,” Wolf said at a press conference, Reuters reported.
The resources freed up by PBB’s withdrawal from the U.S. will be used to diversify into markets and business activities “that promise profitable growth in a stable market environment,” the bank said in a release.
PBB anticipates “extraordinary expenses” that could lead to an annual loss for 2025, leading it to withdraw its financial guidance for the year. It plans to issue new guidance for 2025 “in due course.”
The bank’s shares dropped about 13% upon last week’s announcement. Its value has only crept up slightly since then.
PBB began expanding into the U.S. about a decade ago, amassing a huge portfolio of U.S. commercial real estate loans within a few years, according to Bloomberg. But trouble came when the pandemic hit the U.S. office market.
PBB took write-downs on its U.S. loan portfolio in October after losses during the prior year cut into its profitability. It planned to stop lending on West Coast assets and undertake only minimal lending on the East Coast, Bloomberg reported.
Last May, Blackstone bought a $1B portfolio of U.S. and UK performing loans from PBB.
“A prerequisite for our business activities is the stability of economic and political conditions,” Wolf said last month, according to Bloomberg. “Neither is currently the case” in the U.S., he added.
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