Anglo Irish to offload EUR 1b real estate portfolio

Anglo Irish Bank is reportedly in discussions to sell a EUR 1 bn real estate portfolio to Green Properties, a company controlled by UK property entrepreneur Stephen Vernon.

The Financial Times cited sources close to the talks as saying that the nationalised bank has already agreed terms on the sale of the portfolio that includes Liverpool's Metquarter shopping centre and other UK assets.

Anglo Irish was in recent years the third-largest lender in Ireland and was a particularly aggressive financier of real estate developers and investors during the property boom. But the Irish state had take control of Anglo Irish last January to prevent its collapse following a run on the bank's deposits.