Bank of Ireland CEO looks to redeem preference shares and resume dividend

By Padraic and Halpin

DUBLIN, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Bank of Ireland (EUREX: 1269463.EX - news) will look to repay 1.3 billion euros ($1.45 billion) of preference shares early next year to enable it to resume dividend payments, Chief Executive Richie Boucher said on Thursday.

Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) 's largest lender by assets has led a sector-wide revival as the Irish economy grows faster than any other in Europe and is set to be the first bank in the country to resume dividend payments since the 2008 financial crisis.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) must first stop counting the preference shares as capital and after generating fresh capital at a significant pace this year, analysts predict it will redeem the shares at the earliest point of a guided January to July 2016 range.

"The prefs are costing us 300,000 euro a day so there's a large financial incentive," Boucher said, referring to the shares that carry a coupon of 10.24 percent.

"I wouldn't disagree with the market's anticipation that we want to do it as quickly as we can," he said in the interview in his Dublin office. (Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)