Allied Irish Bank (AIB) trimmed €923m from its commercial loan book during the first six months of the year, bringing its lending to the sector down to €24.6bn.
The beleaguered bank made a €1.3bn pretax loss during the period, driven by costly provisions for impairments of loans and receivables. Impaired loans in the real estate loan book total €12.4bn, roughly half the value of the real estate loan book.
The wind-down of AIB’s real estate loan portfolio is expected to gather momentum in the second half of the year, with the closure of the £383m Project Pivot and €645m Project Kildare transactions.
AIB as a whole made progress in narrowing its loan-to-deposit ratio during the period, which came down to 125% from 138% at the end of 2011.
sophia.furber@estatesgazette.com
