Sears to Sell Mortgage Banking Group : Restructure: The retailing giant continues its retreat from real estate. A Chicago analyst calls the deal ‘a good move.’

Sears, Roebuck & Co. said Tuesday that it will sell its Glendale-based savings bank and two related mortgage operations to PNC Bank Corp. for $328 million in cash.

The sale is expected to make Pittsburgh-based PNC the fifth-largest mortgage lender in the nation. Analysts said the transaction was a new affirmation that Sears’ longtime effort to build itself into a successful retail, banking and real estate giant has failed.

Tuesday’s deal represents “a good move for Sears,” said N. Richard Nelson Jr., an analyst with Duff & Phelps in Chicago, where Sears is headquartered. “Sears has learned that retailing and real estate just don’t mix, and got a fair price for a company it doesn’t want.”

PNC plans to buy what is known as the Sears Mortgage Banking Group. It is made up of Sears Savings Bank, with $6.7 billion in assets; Sears Mortgage Corp., which made $11.8 billion in mortgage loans in California and 32 other states last year, and Sears Mortgage Securities Corp., which packages mortgage loans for sale to private investors.

Sears Mortgage Corp. has especially close ties with Mission Viejo-based Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate, which Sears, Roebuck bought in the 1980s. Sears is also trying to sell Coldwell Banker.

PNC, formed by the merger of Pittsburgh National Bank and Provident National Bank in 1983, is well known in the East. It is the nation’s 11th-largest banking organization, with $51.1 billion in assets and 550 offices, nearly all of them east of the Mississippi River.

“It’s a very well run outfit that has grown by making good acquisitions,” said Richard S. Lawrence, an analyst in Janney Montgomery Scott’s Philadelphia office.

Lawrence speculated that PNC’s planned purchase may be part of an effort to gain a toehold in lucrative western markets for banking services and home mortgage notes.

In a statement, PNC said it would consider selling the western loan-production offices if government regulators approve the proposed purchase.

The Sears restructuring is part of an effort intended to save an estimated $300 million a year. Sears plans to close 113 of its stores and to eliminate about 50,000 jobs.

Sears also plans to spin off its Dean Witter Financial Services operation and sell 20% of its ownership in Allstate Insurance.