Bank Of Ireland Share Discussion Threads

[leebong] 31/12/2013 11:43

The full year results will be published soon and that will clarify the banks position of growth and further recovery in 2014.

I'm expecting substantial share price growth in the first half of the new year.

[cricklewood] 28/12/2013 07:36

First published:
Sat, Dec 28, 2013, 01:00





State's sale of Bank of Ireland shares will bolster exchequer, says Noonan









The cash raised through the sale of the State's preference shares in Bank of Ireland will be used as a buffer to help fund the exchequer next near following the bailout exit. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has directed that the near €2 billion received from the sale of its preference shares in Bank of Ireland this month should be held in the National Pensions Reserve Fund until the National Treasury Management Agency has finalised its debt-raising plan for 2014.


Parliamentary question
This emerged in a reply by the Minister on December 19th to a parliamentary question tabled by Labour Party TD Kevin Humphreys.

"I can confirm to the deputy that I have given instructions that the proceeds arising from the Bank of Ireland preference shares transaction should remain with the National Pensions Reserve Fund for the time being," Mr Noonan said. "Further consideration will be given as to how best to utilise the proceeds having regard to the NTMA's debt-management plan and the future profile of our cash balances."

The preference shares dated back to 2009 and formed part of the €4.7 billion total investment by the State in Bank of Ireland. They were a directed investment held by the NPRF.

Mr Humphreys also asked about the use of the proceeds from the sale in January of the contingent convertible notes, or CoCos as they are better known, held by the State in Bank of Ireland.

The State's investment in these instruments dated back to the 2011 prudential capital assessment review.

Mr Noonan said the State was paid €1.056 billion from the transaction. This comprised the principal of €1 billion, interest accrued of €46 million and a profit of €10 million.

"We used the proceeds of this sale to reduce the State's indebtedness. It reduced the critically important debt/GDP ratio by 0.6 per cent," the Minister said.

Mr Humphreys also asked about the outcome of the recent balance sheet assessments by the Central Bank of Ireland on AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB, and why the full results were not published.

It emerged from the banks that none of them require additional capital on foot of the assessments, but that all of them were found to require extra provisioning for bad loans.

In reply, Mr Noonan said the results were communicated by the Department of Finance to the EU-International Monetary Fund troika as per a requirement of our bailout programme.


'Very technical'
"The results are very technical in nature and I am under a legal obligation to keep the details confidential.

"The interpretation of the results is a matter for the Central Bank, but I am pleased that the governor has informed me that there will not be an additional regulatory capital requirement in the banks as a result of this process."
Mr Noonan said it was a "matter for the banks to decide" if they should publish the results.

To date, Bank of Ireland has published an announcement of the results while Permanent TSB told The Irish Times that it was required to take extra provisioning.

AIB has so far remained silent on the provisioning issue.

[hvs] 27/12/2013 14:11

Its BANKRUPT.

[leebong] 27/12/2013 11:35

Yep, 2014 promises to become a profitable year for BKIR...maybe one euro here we come.

[cruiser70] 24/12/2013 14:53

Happy Christmas everybody, we did a double+ here this year, reckon we repeat it again for 2014. Have fun

[cricklewood] 14/12/2013 16:45

document.write('');


Fitch: Irish Bank Profits in Sight in 2014 But After More Losses


Thu Dec 12, 2013 10:36am EST
(The following statement was released by the rating agency) Link to Fitch Ratings' Report: 2014: Outlook: Irish Banks here LONDON, December 12 (Fitch) The two largest Irish banks are likely to turn profitable in 2014 for the first time since 2009, Fitch Ratings says. This is one of the drivers for our Stable Outlook for the sector as internal capital generation is essential for reducing Irish banks' use of perpetual preferred stock to meet minimum regulatory capital requirements. However, capital ratios are likely to fall further for 2013 due to losses which could be exacerbated following the Central Bank of Ireland's (CBoI) balance sheet assessment. Initial indications from the central bank's review suggest that further impairment charges could be taken by the banks in 2013, so they are likely to report losses. Combined with higher risk weight requirements, the impact on capital ratios could be significant (up to 360bp for the country's largest bank, Bank of Ireland (BOI), according to CBoI's estimate). However, this should place the banks in a better position to be sustainably profitable in the medium term, ahead of the ECB's asset quality review (AQR) and stress test in 2014. The two largest banks, BOI and AIB, are on a path to profitability. A significant reduction in funding costs since 2H12 has helped earnings. This was mainly from lower deposit pricing and the removal of fees when the Irish Bank Eligible Liabilities Guarantee scheme expired at end-1Q13. We expect loan impairment charges to reduce gradually next year as the flow of new impaired loans slows and house prices stabilise. We believe BOI is likely to report profits in 2014 and AIB to achieve monthly profits by 2H14. But there will still be challenges for asset quality. A weak commercial property sector and regulatory pressure to resolve a high proportion of forborne loans and long-term arrears could derail improvements to asset quality. Impaired loans typically have high loan-to-values and rely on collateral, which are difficult to resolve in the short- or medium-term, so are harder to recover. We believe Irish banks will become long-term property managers for many of these loans and keep properties on their balance sheets for some time. The final criteria applicable for the AQR and stress tests are another uncertainty for asset quality. Applying 2019 Basel III rules, which exclude perpetual preference shares received as part of the state recapitalisation process, we estimate that Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratios would reduce to 5% in BOI and 4% in AIB at end-June 2013, which are weak in view of the high levels of net impaired loans to equity. This underscores the need for these banks to be capital generative through profitability before their credit profiles can stabilise on a sustainable basis. BOI has begun to make preparations to reduce its reliance on the perpetual preference shares, but for AIB, we believe this will happen later and could prove more difficult. For more details on our expectations for Irish banks in the coming year, see "2014 Outlook: Irish Banks", published today at www.fitchratings.com. Contact: Denzil De Bie Director Financial Institutions [phone] Fitch Ratings Limited 30 North Colonnade London Cynthia Chan Senior Director Fitch Wire [phone] Media Relations: Hannah Huntly, London, Tel: [phone], Email: [e-mail]. The above article originally appeared as a post on the Fitch Wire credit market commentary page. The original article can be accessed at www.fitchratings.com. All opinions expressed are those of Fitch Ratings

[cricklewood] 13/12/2013 19:52

hxxp://www.ifre.com/financial-issuer-bank-of-ireland/21120267.article

[cruiser70] 13/12/2013 18:44

Not a buy, not a sale it was [X] an event changing the breakdown of voting rights

[cricklewood] 13/12/2013 17:55

I hope so.

[leebong] 13/12/2013 17:38

Maybe I misread the RNS...sorry for that...but the stock is still a great buy at these low prices....take care everyone and good luck.

This bank has very good future prospects that will be demonstrated in the end of year financial results that are due very soon.

[docdave2] 13/12/2013 15:09

That wasn't a purchase that was a SALE, after selling one percent they were then left with just over 2 billion!

[leebong] 13/12/2013 11:19

A strong recovery is in progress as the share price reached 26.3cents in morning trading after it was revealed that a large number of institutional investors had bought more than 2 billion shares in the bank.

Now that's a vote of confidence....:-)))

[leebong] 12/12/2013 15:33

The pension fund sold about 1% of there holding and that caused some selling today. However the over-hang is being cleared allowing the general upward trend to continue. The end of year results maybe published soon like last year; the report will make very interesting reading and will serve to put the bank perception on a more level footing. Many are expecting a drastic reduction in debt along similar lines to the half year results where bank debt fell by some 700 million euros leaving a year-on-year debt of 505 million euros. If there has been a significant reduction of debt then the share price will celebrate by rising.

[benchmark] 12/12/2013 12:03

It may well have had to do with Moody's rather cautious view on our (Ireland's) recovery. The part-reversal of this morning's earlier losses is encouraging. Strong buying still going through at 25.4 cent

[kemorkid] 12/12/2013 10:37

What was that all about then?

[leebong] 06/12/2013 15:51

This story is going to be great for Monday trading.

* Irish lender pays back EUR1.8bn of state aid
* US, UK investors flood equity and pref share sale
* Irish government books profit on bailout
By Aimee Donnellan and Graham Fahy
LONDON, Dec 6 (IFR) - Bank of Ireland (Berlin: BIR.BE - news) took a giant leap forward in its plans to return to mainstream banking this week when it successfully repaid EUR1.8bn of state aid, breaking free from the clutches of a government that supported it through the financial crisis.
The Irish lender executed a two-pronged plan to re-market EUR1.3bn of state-owned preference shares and sell EUR580m of equity, building on strong momentum in the capital markets that is making riskier instruments more attractive to yield-hungry investors.
"This is pretty much closure for Bank of Ireland following a very tough story during the crisis," said Sandeep Agarwal, head of EMEA DCM at Credit Suisse (NYSE: CS - news) .
"These deals achieved a favourable outcome and follow-on secondary performance that speaks to the depth of the market and the confidence investors have in the Irish story."
The bank, which narrowly avoided a full state bailout and infamously burnt its bondholders during the height of the crisis, has been on a fast track to rehabilitation over the past year. It has regained access to every part of debt capital markets, selling covered, senior and Tier 2 bonds, while the government also managed to re-market a CoCo it took on as part of the rescue process.
This week's package allows the bank to redeem EUR537m of government-held preference shares and move the remaining preference shares into the hands of private investors. The bank now expects to redeem the preference shares in 2016 from retained profits.
"This remarketing exercise and equity sale have given us great clarity on the future of the group, and the improvement in our net interest margins provides strong momentum towards sustainable profitability," said Donal Collins, head of group strategy at Bank of Ireland.
US and UK asset managers clearly believe in the bank's recovery, putting in EUR1.7bn of orders for the equity sale and around EUR10bn for the preference shares.
"Bank of Ireland has come a long way in restoring its capital levels, even though asset quality is still a concern," said Georg Grodzki, head of fixed income at Legal & General (LSE: LGEN.L - news) .
"I think investors that are buying this instrument are taking a bet that the issuer will return to profit and pay them back in the coming years. There's a reasonable chance that this will indeed be the case."
The preference shares were priced at 104.5, while the equity was priced at EUR0.26.
Proceeds of the equity issue provide the government with a tidy profit - and good news to placate weary taxpayers who had pumped EUR4.8bn into the bank when it was partially bailed out. The government made a profit of EUR62m on its investment in the preference shares, alongside accumulated interest of around EUR151m.
DIVIDEND FREEDOM
The sale package removes a restriction that prevented the payment of dividends on the bank's ordinary shares while the preference shares were held by the state. This normalises the bank, giving it greater autonomy to decide when and how it handles payouts to shareholders.
"We are a strong bank in an evolving market," said Sean Crowe, head of group treasury of Bank of Ireland. "The government is now in a net positive cash position from its bailout of Bank of Ireland and continues to hold a discretionary stake in the bank."
By unwinding the state's position in the preference shares ahead of a March 31 deadline and structuring the sale using a special purpose vehicle, the bank has avoided a step-up premium that would have made redeeming the shares 25% more expensive. The government retains a 14% stake in the bank.
"This is a situation where everyone is happy, which does not happen every day," said Mauricio Noe, managing director, financial institutions group at Deutsche Bank (Xetra: DBK.DE - news) .
"The government achieved a price way above par and investors got exposure to a credit in which they have confidence. It proves that this name is definitely no longer in high-beta territory any more."
The deal follows a steady stream of more positive economic news in Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) , including the fastest fall in unemployment in four years.

[leebong] 06/12/2013 08:30

s the pref share sale is shrugged-off and the share price continues to recover attention is swinging to the forthcoming full year financial results due out in January. Many pundits are expecting a year-on-year improvement that will send the share price to the 50c region. But next year may prove to be a game changer for the share holders when the 2014 half year results are published next summer; some are expecting dividend payments to resume at a much reduced level after the bank reports a profit for the first time since the banking crash.

The BOI is the first bank in Europe to exit the bailout showing the resilience and determination of the management.

This stock is now out of state control and is able to pay dividends once it starts to return to profitability. The half year 2013 financial results showed a year on year reduction of 700 million euro of debt. After showing that kind of performance this stock will recover and uptrend from it's lows giving investors a handsome future return.

And that is why the pref share sale had strong demand from the institutional investors. I have put my holding into a pension SIPP and expect a very good return on investment. DYOR IMO.

[leebong] 05/12/2013 10:28

The stock is shrugging-off the pref share sale to rebound back up. Normal trading is going to resume and the up trend will continue. What a great stock!.

[cricklewood] 04/12/2013 21:37

The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland (the "Bank")

€1.9bn Capital Package successfully executed

4 December 2013

The Bank announced earlier today a capital package (the "Capital Package") in relation to the 2009 Prefs, which had been agreed with the Irish State and the Central Bank of Ireland, comprising (i) the placing of new units of ordinary stock (the "Placing Stock") to generate proceeds of c. €537 million (net of expenses) ("the Placing"), to redeem c. €537 million of the 2009 Prefs and (ii) the sale by the NPRFC of €1.3 billion 2009 Prefs to private investors.

The Bank has already announced the successful results of the Placing element of the Capital Package.

The successful sale by the NPRFC of €1.3 billion 2009 Prefs to private investors, facilitated by the Bank, has also been announced.

The €1.9bn Capital Package has now been successfully executed.

ENDS

[cricklewood] 04/12/2013 18:50

Cruiser

Thanks for the link, the future is looking very rosy indeed for BKIR imho.