The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) said today it had acquired €72.3 billion in loans by the end of March.

The agency, which today published its fourth quarter report and accounts, said it had paid a total consideration of €30.5 billion for the loans, equivalent to an average discount of 58 per cent.

Nama, which announced a loss of €714 million for last year, said another €3.5 billion of loans may be acquired over the coming months.

The agency said the percentage of performing loans in the portfolio was 23 per cent at the end of 2010.

By the end of December last, the agency had approved €2 billion of asset sales, a figure which rose to over €3 billion by the end of April.

Nama said it had acquired €71.4 billion in loans from the five participating financial institutions at the end of 2010.

The agency also said it had reviewed business plans of the largest thirty debtors - which collectively account for €27 billion of all acquired loans. Some of the biggest property developers in the country, including Treasury Holdings, Bernard McNamara, Liam Carroll and Gerry Gannon, Seán Mulryan and Derek Quinlan, have gone into Nama.

Agreement has been completed with 16 of the top 30 Nama debtors and is close to completion with a further two. The agency has commenced enforcement procedures against seven of the top debtors and is continuing negotiations with five of those debtors.

Up to the end of December 2010, Nama had generated €740 million net cash from its operating activities, mainly from receipts from borrowers totalling €1.014 billion and from derivative inflows of €47 million.

The agency said there was a significant cash outflow of €240 million to borrowers to allow them to complete projects and to fund working capital.

Nama said it had total cash balances of €837 million at the end of last year, an increase of €214 million from the end of the third quarter.

"The opening months of 2011 have been exceptionally busy as Nama moved from a period of intensive analysis of the position of the largest individual debtors to the next phase of the project where the focus is on identifying those we believe we can work with and moving others into the enforcement process," said the agency's chairman Frank Daly.

"We've seen the results of that move in recent weeks and I expect we'll see further decisive action in the weeks ahead," he added.