Balancing Politics and Pragmatism in Irish Bank I.P.O.
ByAllied Irish Banks’ initial public offering is as large as it is political.
Ireland plans to sell 25 percent of the nationalized bank in a dual Dublin-London stock listing. The question is whether the Irish government can persuade investors to pay more than book value for a bank that is still a work in progress.
Allied Irish is an almost pure play on the Irish economy, one of the fastest-growing in the eurozone. Only 14 percent of its loans were in Britain by the end of 2016, compared with 40 percent at its domestic peer, Bank of Ireland. It also has a leading 36 percent market share in Irish mortgages, which are a growth business. And crucially, it is the first domestic Irish lender to resume paying a dividend since the financial crisis…
Balancing Politics and Pragmatism in Irish Bank I.P.O.
