ALLIED IRISH Banks (AIB) has generated about €445 million in fresh capital from a debt restructuring – the first part of the bank’s so-called “self-help” plan to boost its capital by €4 billion.

The bank offered investors in six lower tier two bonds the chance to invest in longer-dated bonds that paid a higher coupon but at a discounted price to the face value of the existing bonds.

Investors agreed to swap the six subordinated bonds with a face value of €2.21 billion for about €1.76 billion of new, higher-yielding debt, generating the €445 million capital gain for the bank.

The bonds are being exchanged for between 74 per cent and 91 per cent of their face value, AIB said.

The bank will issue the new debt to investors next Monday.

The swap represented a 78 per cent take-up among investors, higher than the 56 per cent take-up in a Bank of Ireland debt exchange last month where the bank made a €405 million gain.

Analysts attributed the higher take-up at AIB to the fact that the bank was offering a higher coupon on the bonds than its rival bank.

“It was a good take-up and a good start – there is still more to do,” said Sebastian Orsi, analyst at stockbrokers Merrion Capital.

He estimated that the bank required a further €4.3 billion in additional capital to bring its core equity capital ratio to 8 per cent, which has become the international standard expected showing a bank’s ability to absorb losses.

“This is an important first step in AIB’s capital-raising strategy,” said Fergal O’Leary, a director of Dublin firm Glas Securities.

AIB plans to raise capital through “self-help” options, such as selling assets and seeking a strategic investor, before tapping shareholders in a rights issue.

The bank will start moving the first of €23 billion in loans to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) over the coming days, according to Nama’s plans.

However, the transfers may be delayed as the first institutions to receive details on the first loans to be transferred have yet to obtain full details on the first transfers.

Bank of Ireland is still receiving the so-called acquisition schedules from Nama showing the first loans to be acquired, the price to be paid for them and how the agency has set the discounts on the loans.

AIB will move about €3 billion in loans linked to the top 10 borrowers in the first transfers.

The first loans are expected to transfer on Friday with the publicly quoted participants in Nama – AIB and Bank of Ireland – making announcements after the market closes on Friday or before it opens on Monday on the discounts faced on the first loans.

Further delays in the transfers may delay these announcements.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan is planning to make an announcement on bank recapitalisations next Tuesday.