MPG Office Trust  ($3.13 0.01%), a real estate investment trust, shedded enough assets in the fourth quarter of 2012 to post profit.

The REIT cut loose its staks in heavily indebted properties, which allowed the company to report net income of $205.2 million, or $3.52 a share, compared with a net loss of $9.9 million, or $0.20 a share a year earlier. 

A foreclosure sale of one of the properties MPG was invested in relieved the REIT of its obligation to repay a $470 million mortgage loan.