Irish "bad bank" expects cash to almost cover debts by year-end

DUBLIN, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) 's state-run "bad bank" expects that its cash balances will almost cover its outstanding senior debt maturities by year-end, a spokesman for the agency said on Thursday.

This could potentially move redemptions by the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), which became one of the world's largest property groups in 2009 when it was set up to rid local banks of risky property loans, further ahead of schedule.

NAMA has so far paid back 85 percent of its 30.2 billion euros ($34 billion) of senior bonds and said in June it remained on course to redeem all the senior debt by 2018.

However, it has continued to take advantage of a surge in demand for Irish real estate to run down loans that were worth 74 billion euros before the country's 2008 property crash.

Once it pays off a further 1.6 billion euros of subordinated debt, NAMA expects to return a profit for the government and in June raised its lifetime profit forecast to 2.3 billion euros.

Davy Stockbrokers said on Thursday that a further profit upgrade is highly likely. ($1 = 0.8879 euros) (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Alexander Smith)