A Utah company has purchased a portfolio of $701 million of real estate loans from the failed First National Bank of Nevada, which was headquartered in Reno.
Sorenson Group Holdings LLC of Salt Lake City said last week it purchased the portfolio of Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp. loans from Diversified Business Strategies of Sandy, Utah.
The transaction, which closed Feb. 20, includes loans in Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California. The loans were made by First National Bank and a sister institution, First Heritage Bank of Newport Beach, Calif.
The banks were closed by the Comptroller of the Currency in late July, and placed under the supervision of the FDIC. Mutual of Omaha Bank took over the banks' deposits and some of its loans. The loans it didn't want ended up with FDIC.
A representative of Sorenson Group Holdings said executives of the company wouldn't be available last week to discuss details of the loan portfolio or their company's plans to work out the loans.
"Our goal is to work out the best disposition of these assets for the FDIC, for investors and for borrowers," James Lee Sorenson, the founder of Sorenson Group Holdings, said in a prepared statement.
About 150 loans are included in the portfolio.
The FDIC will share in the proceeds of Sorenson Group Holdings' work with the loan portfolio. The investment group can earn as much as a 40 percent stake if loans are stabilized and borrowers resume making their payments.
While Sorenson Group Holdings will invest in the portfolios, much of the day-to-day management of the assets will be handled by The Sorenson Group, a major real estate developer in Utah's Wasatch Front region.
