Allied Irish Anomaly Makes Bank Europe’s Fifth-Largest
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Allied Irish Banks Plc, the country’s second-largest bank by assets, has a market value bigger than UBS AG and Barclays Plc, even after its third bailout by the government.
The taxpayer last week bought 5 billion euros ($7 billion) of new shares in the bank for 1 euro cent each, giving it a 99.8 percent stake. That left investors with a stake valued at 100 million euros. Allied Irish has since traded at between 9 cents and 12 cents, for a market value of as much as 61.6 billion euros, three times the peak of Feb. 2007.