Wells Fargo buys Bank of Ireland's real estate loans: report

A Wells Fargo bank branch is framed by North Table Mountain in Golden, Colorado January 28, 2009.

(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) won a bid for Bank of Ireland's (BKIR.I) $1.4 billion U.S. commercial real estate loan portfolio, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The 25 loans are backed primarily by commercial real estate in New York, Boston and Washington, and are classified as performing, the Journal said.

The loans were sold at close to face value, the people told the paper.

A spokesman for Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets, declined to comment to the Journal. Wells Fargo could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours.

Bank of Ireland was told to raise 4.2 billion euros ($5.9 billion) in additional core Tier 1 capital following stress tests required under the terms of the 85 billion euro EU-IMF bailout Ireland received last year. [ID:nL3E7IR1E5] ($1 = 0.703 Euros)

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Frederik Richter)