ALLIED IRISH Banks has agreed a deal to sell a portfolio of about $1 billion (€700 million) of US commercial mortgages to the private equity group Blackstone and US bank Wells Fargo.
The loans are financing landmark properties such as the MetLife Building on Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan and Grand Del Mar resort in San Diego.
The Wall Street Journalreported that the sale was struck at a haircut of 7 to 15 per cent on the face value of the loans, with the portfolio split equally between Blackstone and Wells Fargo.
A spokesman for AIB had no comment to make on the report, while a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo could not comment either.
Irish banks are selling loans and other assets, mostly overseas, to deleverage their balance sheets by €72 billion to reduce their reliance on central bank funding and return them to self-sufficiency.
The banks are taking advantage of an upturn in the US commercial property market to agree deals to offload their American loans.
The availability of funding within the US market has created demand for the sale of loan notes among banks and financiers rather than underlying properties.
Earlier this month Bank of Ireland said that it was preparing to sell its remaining $1.8 billion US property loan book.
AIB, which is 93 per cent owned by the State, has to reduce loans by €19 billion and Bank of Ireland by €30 billion by the end of 2013.
Anglo Irish Bank has the biggest US portfolio, with loans of €7.6 billion managed out of offices in Boston and New York.
Anglo has retained commercial property specialists Holliday Fenoglio Fowler (HFF) and Eastdil to value the US book on a loan-by-loan basis.
