CIBC said to explore selling off $316 million in U.S. office loans

financialpost.com:

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is looking to off-load loans on struggling United States office properties.

CBRE Group Inc. has been hired to find buyers for US$316 million of performing and non-performing office loans, backed by eight buildings in cities including San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix and Austin, according to marketing materials seen by Bloomberg News. The seller is CIBC, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named because the process is private.

The bids for the debt are due in mid-February.

A CIBC spokesperson declined to comment. A spokesperson for CBRE didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Banks have been seeking to reduce their exposure to commercial real estate, exploring loan sales over the past year as high borrowing costs depressed values of properties backing the debt. Capital One Financial Corp., which sold a large office-loan portfolio to Fortress Investment Group last year, later put more loans on the market, Bloomberg reported in November.

Other banks had hesitated on debt sales due to geopolitical turmoil and uncertainty around whether borrowing costs would continue to rise. Now, as central banks signal they’re winding down their rapid rate-hiking cycle, buyers and sellers are more motivated to transact.

U.S. office loans make up just one per cent of CIBC’s total asset portfolio, but the bank’s earnings have been dragged down by higher provisions for credit losses in that segment. Executives began talking publicly about “de-emphasizing” U.S. office investments on an earnings call in August.

“We had a little bit of pain from the U.S. office space last year and a little bit this year,” chief executive Victor Dodig said Jan. 9, speaking at an