Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE has said it will take some time before any investor might be willing to buy some of the State’s shares in Allied Irish Banks.
The comments came after Michael Noonan confirmed that AIB had held “initial preliminary meetings” with parties who might be interested in buying the bank, in which the State owns 99.8 per cent through a series of recapitalisations.
Noonan said the bank had told him, following those talks, that investors would “require more visibility on the bank’s performance, particularly its asset quality, before discussions move beyond the preliminary and exploratory stage”.
Noonan’s comments came in response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin’s Sandra McLellan, who had asked whether talks had been held with any prospective investors.
“As one of the two pillar banks in the domestic economy, it is natural that investors will seek to have preliminary discussions with both the bank and the State in order to better understand the underlying performance and value of the AIB franchise,” Noonan said.
The minister suggested the deal struck by the State with a group of private investors in order to sell a holding in Bank of Ireland had shown “that international money managers remain optimistic over the outlook for the Irish economy”.
“As and when any concrete interest is expressed by external investors in making an investment in AIB it will be carefully evaluated by my staff and the bank to ensure that taxpayers’ interests are protected at all times,” Noonan said.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Closing my account next week :) Received a letter saying they were closing my cashsave account leaving me with only my current. I need both. With the charges etc coming in it gives me great pride to close my account after 17 years and say “F*ck you AIB” :)
There’s apparently a flood of peeps closing their accounts… what gobdaw (or committee) thought this was a good strategy? Probably the same shmuck who thought up the campaign about how Ann Glynn had cracked it all those years ago!
Really??? Good! I don’t think any thought is going into these decisions at all. The banks are not being run like a business anymore. They have adopted the same attitude of “F*ck’em we are the best, we dont need anything crazy like a good service etc” its all falling around them now.
My rule of thumb is anytime I hear Hobbs speak I turn the tv or radio off.
Denmark winds up two banks. Burns the bondholders and the markets love them.
What kind of morons do we have running this country and who the f*ck is advising them?
Unfortunately finna fail decided to turn banking debt into sovereign debt, we can’t do what denmark did without defaulting on our national debt meaning no return to the markets for a long time. God I hate Bertie and the 2 Brians soo bad.
Perhaps Noonan might address where the money given to the banks (more widely) has gone, because it hasn’t been used to get lending going/ write-off customer debts… I heard Eddie Hobbs claim (on Pat Kenny’s radio show last week) that banks have put huge volumes of cash on deposit with the ECB where higher interest can be earned… that wasn’t what the bailout was for, was it? Can anyone shed more light on Hobbs’s claim?
The money is required to pay for Greek feta for baldy Noonan!
Just accept that the money is GONE and when it’s GONE, it’s GONE!!
Amazing that after 4 years of public interest, the banks asset quality and transparency cannot be assured or even quantified. How many millions wasted on consultants, nama etc and still noone really knows how much of a mess is in there.
“No body wants to buy it at present ”
The foresight of this man is astounding he’ll be up for Nobel prize for economics if he keeps this brilliance up
One half of the chuckle brothers at play
Totally agree with you John! Noonan is only interested in collecting as much cash as possible! No long term thinking is going on here! The bastards in government think that if they keep Europe sweet, nothing else matters! They don’t give a shit about people’s living standards! As long as it doesn’t affect the elite! We the common people are only a necessary evil in their eyes. We supposedly own AIB, but you would never know by the way they’ve been allowed to do as they like. Do Noonan and his cronies think that there’s no limit as to what we are prepared to tolerate? It’s disgusting to hear them beg for a yes vote! Oh how I wish enough of us would vote no on Thursday. Can’t pretend I know for sure what would happen to Ireland if this were to happen, but I know that the common people can’t possibly be any worse off! As for being starved of funding, if what our so called leaders are telling us is true, then our only option would be a complete default! I really don’t think our European friends would accept that scenario! As far as I can see, a no vote would almost certainly force Fine Gael/ Labour out of office! I mean how could they possibly continue after all the effort put into getting the people to vote yes?
The recent sunshine has addled his bald head! Well, addled it more than it was!
How many kilos of feta would buy AIB, Mr Noonan?
Bank of Ireland debt is still guaranteed by the taxpayer. That was a condition for private investment.
As far as I know AIB and BOI bought a lot of Irish bonds at a cut rate to make a profit ,,,,with Irish tax payers cash !
have your say