Irish Life drops Dolmen plans

IRISH Life & Permanent has withdrawn plans to buy Dolmen Securities Ltd’s stockbroking business, two sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Irish Life and Dolmen both declined to comment.

It was reported that Irish Life had decided that such an acquisition would not “play well” with the investor community at a time when banks were finding it harder to raise capital due to the credit crunch.

Dolmen Securities was set up in 1995 and has fund management and corporate finance divisions. Irish media has valued Dolmen at up to €80 million.