Luis Portillo, who is the major shareholder of Inmobiliaria Colonial, has agreed to transfer part of his stake to banks in order to repay debt.

Former Chairman Luis Portillo transferred 149.7 million shares, which account for 9.2 percent of the company, to Banco Popular, according to a regulatory filing released today. He also gave up 88.8 million shares (5.4 percent of the total) to La Caixa, 54.8 million shares to Caja de Ahorros de Galicia, 45.3 million to Bancaja and 7.5 million shares to Bankinter.

Colonial was suspended from trading in Madrid today, something which has already occurred eight times in 2008. The company has lost 75% of its market value in just six months as sales swindled and banks called in loans to Portillo, who left the company in December. Colonial owes 8 billion euros ($12 billion) to banks including Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Scotland and Credit Agricole.

The stock last traded at 88 cents, giving Barcelona-based Colonial a market value of 1.4 billion euros. The drop in the company’s value attracted takeover interest from Investment Corp. of Dubai and General Electric Co., but in the end there was no agreement between them on the value of the company.

At present time, Spanish house prices are falling in real terms, something that have not been experienced for more than a decade. The average price of houses and apartments rose 4 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, less than March’s 4.6 percent rate for consumer price inflation, according to a Housing Ministry’s statement released on April 18.