IL&P raises €1.15bn in funds

IRISH Life & Permanent (IL&P) has raised €1.15 billion in fresh funding via two separate transactions.

The bulk of the funding is through a bilateral transaction with an unnamed international investment bank for £900 million (€1bn), which is secured on the bank’s British mortgage book.

This follows a similar transaction made in August, when the bank successfully raised £1.4bn of unguaranteed funding.

A further €145m funding was put in place by Permanent TSB Finance — the bank’s car finance subsidiary. This was done via a private placing, secured against its Irish car finance loan book.

According to IL&P, this transaction is the first auto-finance securitisation to take place in the Irish market since the beginning of the financial crisis. The €145m funding was drawn down yesterday.

IL&P added that its recent deal to take over the Irish deposit business of British lender Northern Rock was formally approved by the Minister for Finance on Tuesday and should be completed by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, a ballot of around 1,000 workers at the group’s life and pensions arm, Irish Life — held by the Unite trade union — has rejected an industrial action option, over uncertainty ahead of the proposed sale of the company.

Unite said discussions with management will recommence on a range of issues, adding: “It would be a mistake for the company to interpret the result of the ballot as meaning they have a free hand to implement changes to our members’ terms and conditions without an agreement that is acceptable to our members.”