Takeover fever boosts Irish Life shares

TAKEOVER fever gripped the Irish market yesterday driven by the £17 billion (€24.5bn) takeover offer for the Prudential in Britain by Aviva, owners of Hibernian Group in Ireland.

As a result, over two million shares changed hands in Irish Life, which many analysts think could be the focus of fresh takeover speculation following the move on the Pru by Aviva.

At one point, shares in the Irish group, which is joint leader in the insurance market with Bank of Ireland, were up by over 5% as the bid implications in Britain were taken on board in the Irish market.