Irish banks, off mortgage assets

Financial products linked to US mortgages weigh on the fragile shoulders of Irish banks, which now need to raise cash. It is a good moment for the quotation of these assets: the watchword is therefore to sell, and quickly. Even at discounted prices: perhaps between 7 and 15%.
È exactly what Allied Irish Banks (nationalized during the crisis) is doing, which has just signed an agreement for the sale of a package worth about 1 billion dollars to the US Blackstone Group and Wells Fargo & Co. Among the properties invested by mortgages in possession of the Allied Irish is also the famous MetLife Building, in New York.
A few days ago the Bank of Ireland had also announced the sale of similar products for 1,5 billion dollars. And the Anglo Irish Bank is next: it is studying a plan to sell its US real-estate portfolio, worth 10 billion dollars. Overseas investors are following closely and rubbing their hands: they have everything to gain from Irish shopping.