The expectation is for AIB, the second-largest bank within the nation, to be returned to private ownership by the year 2025, as a forthcoming buyback deal scheduled for next month is set to decrease the government’s ownership to just above a third, as reported by the Financial Times, based on a conversation with bank’s CEO, Colin Hunt.
At present, the State owns slightly below 40 per cent of AIB, a bank saved from collapse by the public following the 2008 economic crisis. Shareholders are predicted to greenlight a buyback worth €1 billion of shares from the State during the Annual General Meeting on May 2nd, the day it also shares its Q1 outcomes. Investors are keen to hear updates about the speed of further reductions.
The government’s ownership portion will drop beneath 34 per cent if the buyback deal gets accepted, as suggested by Hunt in his discussion. If the previous year’s rate of reduction carries on, financial analysts cited by the FT believe the state’s stake could drop to the low 20s by the end of the current year. Hunt has not ruled out the prospect of a complete withdrawal by 2025.
Having had a remarkably solid year in 2023, Hunt stated it was the most successful year in the bank’s history, but sees it as a ‘book end’ and a close to a chapter. Despite the importance of remembering the global financial crisis to learn lessons from it, he insists that it should no longer define the bank’s identity.
In related news, the asking price for a prominent Dublin office building has been cut by half. Receivers Nicholas O’Dwyer and John Boland from Grant Thornton have assigned Colliers as the estate agent to sell the 190,000 sq ft Beckett Building, situated on East Wall in Dublin. Originally listed for €80 million by the Korean fund, KB Financial Group, the revised asking price is now at €40 million. Previously, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, was leasing the site at €4.5 million per year, however, it ceased the agreement last year in an effort to streamline costs and scale down its workforce.
Tiernan Properties has decided to halt the sale of Limerick’s Arthur’s Quay shopping centre, and instead has announced plans for a €200 million redevelopment of the site. This comes following an initial intention to sell the centre for €15 million last year. The property developer’s new project will increase the retail area of Arthur’s Quay threefold and will include 300 social, affordable, and cost-rental apartments, as detailed by Sunday Independent. This redevelopment will be executed in line with a scheme outlined by Limerick City and County Council intended specifically for the Arthur’s Quay locale.
Meanwhile, reports from the Business Post indicate an unsettling trend of companies opting for closure instead of paying off the taxes they deferred under a Covid relief regime. A startling total of over 4,000 businesses, each in debt of more than €50,000 in taxes they shelved during the pandemic, are yet to resolve repayment agreements with Revenue. As the May 1st due date for recouping the outstanding payments draws closer, a significant number of enterprises seem to prefer voluntary closure over meeting such obligations, the Business Post reports. Accountancy forecasts anticipate between 800 and 1,000 firm insolvencies by year-end, a peak unattained in nearly ten years.
In other news, the UK’s commitment to eradicating the use of coal has led to the planned closure of its last remaining coal-fuelled power plant, situated at Ratcliffe-on-Soar. Due to close in six months’ time, the power station has been a notable electricity provider for over fifty years, covering an area equivalent to the size of the City of London, according to the Observer. The facility, inaugurated in 1968, once consumed 65% of Nottinghamshire’s coal production, it has been noted.