Lloyds Banking Group, Britain’s biggest residential lender, agreed to sell a group of souring Irish retail mortgages to Apollo Global Management for £257 million (€308 million).

The mortgages generated losses of £33 million (€39 million) last year, London-based Lloyds said today. The transaction, which is part of the company’s efforts to cut non- core assets, is to be completed in the first half of 2014, the bank said.

“The sale proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes and the transaction, although capital accretive, is not expected to have a material impact on the group, due to existing provisions taken against these assets,” Lloyds said. Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said in October the lender was ahead of its plan to reduce assets that aren’t designated as central to its future. Non-core assets dropped by £12.6 billion to about £70 billion in the third quarter. The bank said it will shrink the unit, which includes bad debts, much of the lender’s international operations and real estate loans, to about £66 billion by the end of 2013.