PTSB chief says bank must produce results to attract investors

State owns 57% of PTSB

PTSB chief financial officer Barry D'Arcy with chief executive Eamonn Crowley. 

The chief executive of PTSB has said the bank has to “produce the results that are attractive to investors” as it is about to become the last remaining pillar bank in Ireland in which the State has a significant stake in.

The comments come following a decision by AIB earlier this week to buy back €1.2bn worth of shares from the Government, bringing the State’s stake in the bank to 3.3%. Under the terms of the buyback, an off-market purchase of 191,671,857 ordinary shares in the bank will be made at a price of €6.2607 per share.

The State is expected to divest from its remaining share in the company by the end of the year.

When asked about this development, following his bank’s annual general meeting, PTSB chief executive Eamonn Crowley said: “We welcome the divestment of the state from AIB in the sense of how that has progressed, quite good for not only the State, but also for shareholders in AIB and for AIB itself”.

"We will be the last of the three banks with some State stakeholding. Our job is obviously to ensure that we produce the results that are attractive to investors,” he said, adding a key part to this was the bank paying dividends.

"We've stated it's our ambition to pay a dividend next year subject to regulatory approval. So these are all key factors in how we think about our own performance and then our attractiveness to potential shareholders,” he said.

Shares in PTSB were trading at €1.72 on Friday. According to PTSB's share profile, the State owns 57.44% of the bank, which is worth just under €540m.

The Government had invested €3.9bn into the bank during the financial crisis and through a combination of fees, dividend income and disposal proceeds, the State has to date recovered €2.7bn.

In its latest trading update, PTSB said the impact of lower interest rates had seen its net interest income drop by 9% during the first three months of the year, but it has kept its targets for the year in place on the back of strong lending.

The lender now holds a 20% share of the Irish mortgage market, up from just over 16% at the end of 2024.

New business lending was also up 25%, with total gross loans rising to €22bn, up 1% since the year-end. Customer deposits also rose, increasing by 3% to a total €24.9bn.

Mr Crowley said demand for mortgages as well as business lending was strong.

He said there was “more than the sense” the bank was a “challenger” now in the market when it comes to business lending.

“We're picking up new business in that sense.” 

Earlier this year, PTSB said it was well-provisioned coming into 2025 and modelled more “conservative” impairment scenarios than the consensus due to uncertain global economic outlook.

PTSB chief financial officer Barry D’Arcy said despite the global upheaval in trade seen in recent months, “we're not seeing anything on the ground in terms of customer behavior or anything to that effect”.

“We're not seeing anything right now, which is really positive. The Irish consumer is very resilient, and the way we've underwritten portfolios in recent times have changed, and then the macro credential rules came on top. So I think it's in a pretty good space,” he said.