US investment firms bid for Lloyds Irish loans

US investment firms Lone Star Funds and Kennedy-Wilson Holdings are among remaining bidders for parts of about two billion euros of mainly Irish real estate loans that Lloyds is selling, according to Bloomberg reports. Lloyds has attracted bids of 10 to 15 cents in the euro for the so-called Pittlane portfolio.Lloyds decided two years ago to close and run down the Irish unit it acquired two years earlier as part of its 2008 takeover of HBOS.The bank has already taken £11.8bn of impairment charges on Irish loans since the nation's real estate market collapsed four years ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.Irish commercial real estate prices have plunged by two-thirds from their 2007 peak, according to Investment Property Databank, while residential property values have fallen by 50%, according to the country's statistics office.CM