Anglo Irish Bank expects its UK business to become significantly bigger than its Irish operations within three to five years.

Anglo chief executive David Drumm says the bank is not seeking acquisitions but is looking to exploit growth opportunities in its core markets. "The bank is doing well. The outlook is very strong. We are not in acquisitive mode because we don't need to be," he said. "There are growth opportunities in Ireland, the UK and the US."

Anglo is currently looking at setting up new bases in the UK market to capitalise on the growth potential there. The bank has had a presence in London for more than 20 years and for the last decade in Manchester. In 2000 it opened offices in Glasgow and Birmingham and is currently considering expanding into cities such as Edinburgh and Leeds.

Mr Drumm says the opportunities to grow the Anglo franchise in the UK are enormous. "The market is 15 times the size of Ireland. We now have a market share of about 5 per cent and I see the UK overtaking our Irish business in the next three to five years," he said.

Anglo claims that 70 per cent of new business in the UK is repeat business from its client base. The UK business currently accounts for 40 per cent of Anglo's total lending.

Anglo has also been expanding in the US where it recently established a presence in New York to supplement its Boston operations.

Anglo has 4,000 lending customers in Ireland and 60,000 customers with deposits. It has 1,500 lending customers in the UK and 200 in the US.

In the Republic, Anglo is one of the key players in providing finance for many high profile property deals and projects and has generated huge profit growth on the back of their success.

The bank is currently backing the Precinct consortium's proposed bid for the Jurys Doyle Hotel Group. It previously financed Precinct's acquisition of the Gresham Hotel Group.

In May the bank reported a 35 per cent increase in pretax profits to €308 million in the six months to the end of March, ahead of market expectations.