GE Capital Real Estate sells lending unit for $2.5 billion

Norwalk-based GE Capital sold Business Property Lending Inc., a unit of GE Capital Real Estate, to EverBank Financial Corp. for $2.51 billion cash.

Business Property Lending originates and services commercial real estate loans for small and mid size businesses, and currently employs 108 people at 14 offices nationwide, including offices in Shelton and Norwalk.

The business has been drawn down significantly since the financial crisis. Business Property Lending, which at one point originated more than $4 billion a year in loans, has originated roughly $317 million in loans so far in 2012.

EverBank’s acquisition includes about $2.44 billion of performing commercial loans, origination and servicing platforms, and servicing rights on $3.1 billion of loans securitized by GE Capital.

The combined company will have pro-forma assets of roughly $16.2 billion. EverBank, which went public in May and has a market value of $1.3 billion, had assets of $13.8 billion as of the end of March.

EverBank said it expects Business Property Lending to originate between $500 million and $1 billion a year in loans in the near term, saying that the unit’s management team would likely be retained.

“We are excited to bring on board an experienced, well managed team,” said Blake Wilson, EverBank president, in a statement. “We expect the diversification benefits to our product offering, loan portfolio, asset generation and earnings from this transaction will be strong.”