The National Asset Management Agency is preparing for its biggest sale to date by packaging together up to €8 billion in smaller debtor loans that will be brought to market over the next 18 months.

The Irish Times has learned Nama will shortly appoint a sale adviser to handle the loan disposals. The loans are related to about 500 Nama debtors and involve various commercial and residential properties. The loans all have a face value of €75 million or less and have been managed on Nama's behalf by either the individual banks or Capita, a specialist asset servicer.

One large portfolio

It is understood Capita has been notified by Nama of its plans to sell these loans. Nama could choose to sell all the loans in one large portfolio.

However, the agency is expected to bundle them into a number of portfolios and to sell them separately. It is hoping to capitalise on the strong international investor appetite that currently exists for Irish assets. Nama is aiming to complete these disposals by the middle of next year.

It is not clear how much Nama paid for the €8 billion in loans when it acquired them from the banks five years ago, but it will not get back the original values of the loans. This mega sale by Nama is part of an accelerated wind-down plan for the agency, which was originally due to operate until 2020.

Some two-thirds of its staff are expected to be made redundant by the end of 2016 and its work could be completed by the end of 2018. In 2014, Nama completed 16 deals worth €10.1 billion, according to a report this week by Cushman & Wakefield.

Nama's biggest deal to date was the sale last year of Project Eagle, its Northern Ireland loan book, with a face value of €5.6 billion. The agency has sold nearly €19 billion of assets since its inception.

Nama was set up in late 2009. It paid €32 billion to acquire €74 billion in face value loans from AIB, Bank of Ireland, EBS, Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide.