Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Leucadia National Corp. agreed to pay as much as $490 million for Capmark Financial Group Inc.’s loan-servicing and mortgage business in a bet on the U.S. real estate market.

The partnership of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire and New York-based Leucadia was paid $40 million by Capmark to enter into the agreement, the Horsham, Pennsylvania-based lender said today in a statement. The deal gives Capmark the right to sell the assets later to the venture, known as Berkadia III LLC. Capmark may file for bankruptcy after a $1.6 billion second- quarter loss, the lender said in a separate statement today.

Berkshire has been increasing investments in the U.S. real estate market, buying shares of banks including Wells Fargo & Co., the No. 1 U.S. mortgage lender this year. Yesterday, Berkshire’s real-estate brokerage unit announced it acquired a Chicago-based agency to expand in Illinois.

The Capmark deal “fits with the real estate brokerage they bought,” said Gerald Martin, a finance professor at American University’s Kogod School of Business in Washington who has studied Buffett’s investing history. “The market’s down. It’s time to buy.”

Capmark is one of the largest U.S. commercial real estate finance companies, with more than $10 billion in originations, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The company services more than $360 billion of debt.

Multifamily Apartments

Berkadia III will pay $415 million in cash for the mortgage business if Capmark enters bankruptcy. The venture would also pay $75 million in the form of a note that can be reduced depending on losses in Capmark’s portfolio financing multifamily apartments backed by Fannie Mae.

Outside of bankruptcy, Berkadia III will pay $375 million in cash and the $75 million note that that can be adjusted for the losses. The buyers will also provide a $40 million “holdback” they will retain to cover indemnity claims, according to the statement.

Laura Ulbrandt, a spokeswoman for Leucadia, didn’t return a call seeking comment. Buffett didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment left with his assistant Carrie Kizer.

Berkshire slipped $400, or 0.4 percent, to $98,200 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Leucadia fell 17 cents to $23.46.

Berkshire’s loan portfolio in its financial products business, which totaled $13.9 billion at the end of 2008, is held mostly in consumer debt. Commercial loans rose 4.7 percent to $1.05 billion last year, while loans to individuals advanced 15 percent to $13.2 billion. Buffett’s firm, which originates and buys loans, doubled its allowances for uncollectible debts in 2008 to $298 million.

CIT, GMAC

The company does commercial and consumer lending through Berkshire Hathaway Credit Corp. and manufactured housing subsidiary, Clayton Homes, according to the firm’s 2008 annual report.

Last year, Berkshire agreed to buy a portfolio of loans backing factory-built homes for $300 million from CIT Group Inc., the unprofitable lender based in New York. Capmark, the former GMAC LLC unit owned by firms including KKR & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is struggling with debt after originating most of its loans in 2006 and 2007, close to the peak of the real estate boom. Moody’s rates the company’s debt seven levels below investment grade.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Frye in New York at afrye@bloomberg.net; Pierre Paulden in New York at ppaulden@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 2, 2009 16:53 EDT