Lloyds Banking Group is reportedly mulling over of the sale of Irish real estate loans in an effort to pull itself out of Europe's property slump.

The London-based lender, which is 39% owned by the taxpayer, is considering the sale of about €650m of loans but will have to sell at a discount, a source told Bloomberg.

In 2010, Lloyds started to wind down and close the Irish arm it purchased two years earlier as part of a takeover of HBOS.

According to the bank's annual report, more than 90% of its £7.4bn commercial real estate loan book is impaired.

CarVal Investors LLC agreed to acquire €380m of Irish and UK property loans from the bank at about 25% of face value in November.

The same month, Lloyds also agreed to sell £1.5bn of Irish commercial real estate loans to Apollo Global Management LLC for 10% of face value.

The news comes after the bank announced it was cutting a total 8,550 jobs as part of a major restructuring.

Lloyds reported a loss for last year of £570m, down from £3.5bn in 2011, blaming a £3.5bn provision for mis-selling payment protection insurance.

The government has indicated it would sell-off its stake in the bank within months.

RD

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