Lloyds sells $504mn of bad property loans to Cerberus

LONDON: Lloyds Banking Group L> has sold a portfolio of soured property loans to US private equity firm Cerberus Global Investments for 325 million pounds ($504 million), as the state-backed bank continues to purge its balance sheet of bad debt.

The price tag reflects a 38 percent discount to the face value of the loans, the bank said on Friday.

British banks Lloyds and RBS have both shed portfolios of bad property loans in recent years as they clean up a mess generated during years of profligate real estate lending in the run-up to the financial crisis.