Anglo Irish Bank Buys Swiss Private Banker

by Jason Gorringe, Investors Offshore, London

28 January 2002

Irish financial group Anglo Irish Bank said on Sunday that it had agreed to buy Geneva-based private bank Banque Marcuard Cook & Co for Euros 84.6 million. It said Marcuard, with net assets of SFr32.3m and assets under management of SFr1.9 bn, provided asset management services to 1,400 private clients across Europe.

Anglo Irish Bank said the private bank was expected to post pre-tax profit of 12 million Swiss francs for the year ended December 2000. The Irish bank already operates asset management and private banking operations in the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man and Austria. The acquisition will effectively double the level of assets under management in the group. Around one-third of Anglo's profits are now being generated outside of Ireland.

Last Wednesday Anglo Irish Bank outgoing chairman Mr Anthony O'Brien announced a 46 per cent rise in pre-tax profits for 2001 to Euros194.8m. Earnings per share rose by 41% to 41.92 cents per share and total assets grew by Euros4.7 billion to Euros15.7 billion. A 20% increase in dividend for the year to 10.44 cents per share was proposed.

The Chairman told shareholders that the bank had started the year robustly and is confident of another strong performance. 'Trading is well above the first three months of last year and is in line with our demanding targets,' he said.

Chief executive Mr Sean FitzPatrick said the bank would likely reach its lending growth target of 15-18%. He added that the bank had provisioning of three times non-performing loans and was setting aside 1% of all new lending for general provisioning. Despite the slowdown, Mr FitzPatrick said the Irish market was still buoyant.

Mr O'Brien reported that earlier in the week, Anglo had completed a placing of the equivalent of 5% per cent of its stock. 'The proceeds from this, which amounted toEuros64 million, will strengthen further our balance sheet and leave us well placed to capitalise on future acquisition opportunities,' he said, foreshadowing Sunday's announcement.

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