Irish Nationwide says that it has had a near 100 per cent take-up for its coercive buyback of €170 million of subordinated debt at an 80 per cent discount.

The lender said yesterday that investors holding €146 million worth of bonds due in 2016 and €23.9 million of notes due in 2018 had agreed to the buyback by an early deadline of March 8th.

Irish Nationwide had said that the offer applied to €147 million of bonds due in 2015 and €24 million due in 2018.

The company has extended the deadline for its early tender payment to March 18th due to the strong response.

Bondholders who do not accept the offer by that date will be offered 0.001 per cent of the face value of the bonds. – (Reuters)