The banking and mortgage subsidiaries of Intervest Bancshares Corp. sold $207 million in nonperforming and under-performing assets.

The sale included $187 million in loans and $14.4 million of real estate owned by Intervest National Bank, and $5.6 million of loans owned by Intervest Mortgage Corp., a release said. The sale reduced Intervest's total nonperforming and under-performing assets by 75 percent.

The assets are comprised mainly of troubled loans for commercial real estate and multi-family properties and for real estate owned in New York and in Florida, the release said.

Intervest National Bank, headquartered in New York, is a $2.3 billion bank with most of its banking operations in six offices in Pinellas County.

The buyers were affiliates of Värde Partners Inc., an investor in distressed securities and assets headquartered in Minneapolis, and FirstCity Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: FCFC), a financial services company headquartered in Waco, Texas.

Värde and FirstCity also bought 850,000 shares of common stock of Intervest Bancshares (NASDAQ: IBCA), the release said. The aggregate purchase price was $4.25 million, and the shares represent 9.9 percent of the issued and outstanding shares of Intervest Bancshares.

The holding company used the proceeds to contribute additional capital to the bank, the release said, although both before and after the transactions, the bank had capital ratios in excess of the regulatory requirements to be designated as well capitalized.

Sandler O'Neill & Partners LLP acted as placement agent for Intervest in connection with the private placement of the stock. Sandler O'Neill Mortgage Finance LP was the agent in connection with the loan sale.