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AIB HAS SOLD its stake in a Bulgarian bank for a mere €100,000 – having paid €216 million for the same stake just three years ago.
The now-state owned bank had paid €216m for a 49.99 per cent stake in the Bulgarian-American Credit Bank (BACB) in early 2008.
In a statement to the Bulgarian Stock Exchange last Friday, though, banking investor Tsvetelina Borislavova said she had bought the stake from AIB for the princely sum of €100,000 – only a tiny fraction of what AIB had paid for it.
The Sofia Echo reported that the low price for the stake was due to the volume of debt that the new owner was taking on. The bank is due to repay €25m of a €75m loan to AIB next month, as well as paying out on €35m of bonds to other investors.
Borislavova’s investment vehicle is now set to loan the bank another €35m to see it through its obligations.
AIB had said last month it had concluded an agreement to sell the stake to Borislavova’s investment vehicle for an undisclosed amount.
Borislavova is the girlfriend of Bulgaria’s current prime minister Boyko Borisov.
Shares in BACB closed down by 1.8 per cent on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange this afternoon, at 0.054 Bulgarian lev (2.76c) each. AIB shares in Dublin were unchanged at 17c each.
[h/t Philip O'Sullivan, via Politics.ie]
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That doesn’t make sense – if all they were worth is €100,000 , would it not better be to keep them for now?? As in they pretty much already brought all loss they possibly could…
I couldn’t make such bollox of something like that deal no matter how hard I tried.
The interesting thing though is that if you did it, you would loose your job for The 3p’s – piss poor performance. In Ireland no one will loose their jobs, no one will be held accountable for this latest disaster in our banks. Same shite for decades, when AIB went bust in the 80′s and were bailed out by Garret Fitz and FG, no one was held accountable, no bonuses were cut. Garrett got a non-recourse loan off the back of that in thanks. The banks own FG and FF, and neither party will say boo to them for any actions they take.
A.I.B. aren’t alone there, a fair chunk of the country lost varying amounts in Bulgaria, thinking it was the next property bubble.
40 grand for a single room (sorry, studio!) with jacks off it, only about four hours by road from the nearest airport, and populated with surly youths and opportunistic taxi drivers.
Come to think of it, it wasn’t too dissimiliar to the Irish property market in parts, at all!
Except for the price that is. But 230 million down to a hundred k is hard to beat!
So many people have lost their investments in Bulgarian property, so many have lost their investments in AIB shares…but at least the directors are still well paid!
This should have been listed for sale in the Irish Papers first , Minister reprimand this official please , any more surprises !
Do you really think anyone in Ireland would invest €35,100,000 in a Bulgarian bank riddled with debt?
If someone is willing to pay 100k surely they intend to turn profit so why AIB can’t? Are they stupid or what? Why this wasn’t offered for sale here???
Because the people that were investing were taking on a heap of debt.
Yes Sean, yes they are!
I can understand at some stage having to cut your losses but I would like to know if any of the “lads” made a nice profit on this deal.
Bunch of useless gangsters and morons, all of them
Can’t say I’m crying any tears for them, except that no doubt they’ll find some way of making the taxpayer foot the bill for the loss.
*facepalm
This stinks, sold to the girlfriend ? The AIB executives involved should be named and shamed. A file should be sent to the DPP but it will sit there with the rest.
If AIB and Bank of Ireland or Anglo Irish Directors start going to jail, they are going to take a lot of FF and FG TD’s with them. They aren’t going to allow that, better to just over look the free loans and debt cancellations that the banks gave to Taoiseach’s such as Haughey and Garrett Fitzgerald.
have your say