AIB has sold a €300m equivalent portfolio of loans to Bank of America Merrill Lynch as struggling banks continue to de-risk.
This is according to banking sources quoted by Reuters today.
AIB put the portfolio of leveraged and corporate loans up for sale a couple of weeks ago via traders in Europe's secondary loan market and sold them this month, the banking sources said.
Both AIB and BoAML have declined to comment.
The portfolio consisted of well-known leveraged credits including Spanish pizza delivery business Telepizza, Spanish womenswear retailer Cortefiel and Bulgarian telecoms firm Bulgaria Telecomunications, the bankers said.
Banks from indebted euro zone countries have been looking to dump billions of loans in leveraged, corporate, property, project finance and infrastructure debt.
The move is designed to cut losses from unprofitable loans that cost more to fund than they earn and reduce bank balance sheets before the impending Basel III capital requirements makes holding the loans punitively expensive.
US and Asian banks as well as a number of hedge funds have been active buyers of this debt, which can be picked up at a good discount, traders said.
