Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Wednesday announced that a Colony Capital LLC joint venture won an auction for a 40 percent stake in a portfolio of distressed commercial real estate loans, paying $440 million. It’s the second such investment Colony has made this year.

The Santa Monica investment firm, controlled by billionaire Thomas Barrack, bought the stake in a $1.85 billion portfolio of loans from 22 failed banks. Cogsville Group, a minority-owned investor in New York, was its junior equity partner in the deal; Colony will be the managing general partner.

Colony paid about 59 cents on the dollar for the portfolio, which consists of about 1,660 distressed commercial real estate loans, half of which are delinquent, said the FDIC, which received six bids from four bidders. About three-quarters of the loans are for properties in California, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and Georgia. Colony will manage, service and ultimately dispose of the assets, the FDIC said.

The FDIC retains a 60 percent stake in the entity that holds the portfolio and will share in the returns on the assets. The FDIC is offering the investors zero-interest financing.

Colony in January purchased 1,200 distressed loans from FDIC for $90.5 million, which were placed in a limited liability company in which Colony had a 40 percent interest and the FDIC 60 percent.