US private equity firm Apollo has bought a portfolio of Irish home loans from Britain's Lloyds Banking Group for £257m sterling, less than half their nominal value.
Lloyds, which has lost billions of pounds in Ireland since the financial crisis and is one-third owned by the UK government, said today that the non-performing loans had a nominal value of £610m.
They were sold at a 58% discount to that value.
They were bought by Tanager Limited, an entity affiliated with Apollo Global Management.
Lloyds said the portfolio made a loss of £33m last year and the sale was part of the run-down in its non-core assets.
The bank said the deal was positive for its capital position and would not have a material impact due to existing provisions taken against the assets. The deal is expected to complete in the first half on 2014.
Lloyds last week sold a €1 billion book of euro-zone commercial property loans to US hedge fund Cerberus at a 21%discount to their nominal value.
