AIB Profit Soars as Irish Election Weighs on State Share Sale
- CEO says he's `not too worried' if state share sale delayed
- Pretax profit rises 72% to 1.9 billion euros in 2015
The logo of the Allied Irish Bank (AIB) sits at a branch in Dublin, Ireland, on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2010. Ireland is preparing to take majority control of Allied Irish Banks Plc and pump extra cash into Anglo Irish Bank Corp., raising the cost of repairing the financial system to as much as 50 billion euros ($68 billion).
Photographer: Crispin Rodwell/BloombergAllied Irish Banks Plc’s profit soared last year as the government-owned lender released money previously set aside to cover bad loans.
Pretax profit rose 72 percent to 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion), driven by a 925 million-euro write back of loan impairment provisions taken during the financial crisis. The bank took a 250 million-euro charge for restructuring and customer redress on legacy issues including mortgage borrowers being on the wrong interest rate.