Bank of Ireland eyes further loan book acquisitions

DUBLIN, April 29 (Reuters) - Bank of Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) will consider further acquisitions of mortgages or loan portfolios in its main markets of Ireland and Britain once they are of appropriate risk and type, the bank's chairman said on Wednesday.

As foreign lenders who have exited the Irish market sell off large portfolios of loans, Bank of Ireland completed the purchase of 500 million euros worth of performing loans during the first four months of the year.

"We do not have a strategy to go out and acquire in new business areas but we do and we will acquire, in full, pieces of business that support our existing strategy," Bank of Ireland chairman Archie Kane told a shareholder meeting. (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)