Bank of Ireland Sees Dividend Next Year as 2015 Profit Soars
- Underlying pretax profit rises 30% to 1.2 billion euros
- CEO Richie Boucher says financial risk from `Brexit' is low
New Hope for Bank of Ireland Shareholders
This article is for subscribers only.
Bank of Ireland plans to return to paying dividends next year for the first time since the financial crisis after profit at the nation’s largest lender by assets rose 30 percent in 2015.
Underlying pretax profit, excluding items such as restructuring costs, rose to 1.2 billion euros ($1.33 billion) from 921 million euros a year earlier, the bank said in a statement Monday. That was in line with the 1.24 billion-euro average estimate of 15 analysts compiled by Bloomberg. The loan book returned to growth, rising 3 percent to about 85 billion euros.