BoI’s Bristol sale to net €44m extra

BANK OF IRELAND’S sale of its struggling Bristol & West branch network in Britain will yield €44 million more in profits than originally expected, the bank said yesterday.

The bank said the €218m sale to the Britannia building society would result in a once-off after-tax profit of €175m. This compared with an anticipated benefit of €131m when the deal was announced in May. The difference was down to transaction-related costs that were lower than expected and more favourable taxation treatment than had been predicted.

The bank also said the sale, formally completed yesterday, would have little or no impact on its future earnings but would strip out ongoing costs and improve the group’s overall cost-income ratio, a key measure of profitability.