ANGLO IRISH Bank’s accounts show that during the first half of the year, it took a €1 billion hit on the value of the US loan book which it is hoping to sell to one of a number of bidders by the end of the year.

The State-owned bank last week reported that it had lost €101 million in the six months ended June 30th, far below the €8 billion loss it recorded for the same period last year.

The bank is hoping to sell its US loan book by the end of the year. A number of American banks, including JP Morgan and Wells Fargo, are understood to have bid for the $9.4 billion loan book.

The bank’s accounts classify its US loan book as assets held for sale, along with debts that are due to be taken over by State agency Nama.

The figures show that it wrote down the value of the US loans to €5.6 billion from €6.6 billion in its accounts for the first half of the year, a reduction of €1 billion in their value.

Anglo has had the loans on the market for some time. Last week it said that while it was optimistic that they could be sold by the end of the year, the process was complex because of the number of debts involved.

The State took over the bank in January 2009 after controversies including revelations about loans to its former chairman, Seán FitzPatrick.

The taxpayer will have to foot the bill for bailing it out. The cost was originally put at €34 billion, but the bank’s executives estimated last week that the final bill might be in the region of €25 billion to €28 billion. Earlier this year, the bank took control of most of the assets of the Quinn Group, one of its biggest debtors.