Allied Irish almost doubles 2015 profits, election impacts IPO

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, March 3 (Reuters) - Allied Irish Banks (Berlin: 30544177.BE - news) ' (AIB) stock market return may be delayed by a political stalemate after an inconclusive election, the state-owned bank's financial chief said on Thursday, after announcing an almost doubling of 2015 profits.

But prospects for the 99.2 percent state-owned bank's initial public offering nevertheless remain good, AIB Chief Financial Officer Mark Bourke told Reuters.

"Clearly if there's a long period where there's no government, then that slows it down but I don't think our prospects have changed radically," Bourke said.

"Our job is simply to be ready. A three-month or a six-month or one-year move is pretty much irrelevant. Either way, this (a full re-privitisation) will be a very long process."

The bank, whose 21 billion euros ($22.81 billion) taxpayers bailout was the biggest for any Irish bank still trading, reported a pre-tax profit of 1.9 billion euros, from 1.1 billion a year ago as it clawed back more money put aside for bad loans, cut costs and made a better margin on increased new lending.

In a note to clients, Investec Ireland said the bank's continued improvement in profitability and strong capital position positioned it well for an IPO.

The bank has said it is ready to begin its return to private ownership and encountered strong demand from potential investors after Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) 's outgoing government laid out plans to sell a 25 percent stake this year.

But the government was rejected at elections last week and there is no replacement in sight.

Bourke also said he also did not think the recent volatility in European bank shares had changed the IPO prospects.

The bank paid back 1.6 billion euros of the bailout last year with a further 1.8 billion to come in July when state-owned contingent capital notes (CoCos) mature.

The bank has benefited from a growing Irish economy and said its net interest margin, a measure of how profitable its lending is, rose to 1.97 percent as it stock of impaired loans fell by 40 percent year-on-year to 13 billion euros.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) also continued writing back some of the billions of euros in provisions it racked up during Ireland's financial crisis and was able to take an overall provision writeback of 925 million euros, a five-fold increase on the year before.

Net (LSE: 0LN0.L - news) loans fell marginally to 63 billion euros as, like other Irish banks, it struggled to lend as fast indebted customers pay back their debts even as new lending improved by 49 percent.

($1 = 0.9205 euros) (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Susan Thomas)