The Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland (IRE)

All Comments on IRE

  • commenter
    Fliujniligui
    Oct 08 10:32 PM
    Ireland's Ailing Banking Sector [view article]
    I have AIB. They have 24% stake in M&T Bank in USA. Seems Warren Buffet is in M&T too. For now if you take 24% x M&T market cap, you have something around one third of AIB market cap. If price drops too much, buying AIB will give you more exposure to M&T than buying M&T directly. The Fat P/E, the low amount of writedowns incurred on first half of 2008 and the dividend history seems interesting. Maybe the road will get bumpy but on long term the dividend can be good. Are not low prices and counter-crowd moves the hallmarks of value investing ?

    I read annual and half year reports, well it seems good. Maybe some bad assets exists but we can't get a grasp on em really, as with any other bank. That is the risk component of the business. Bought some ING Group shares too with the same idea behind it. Diversification has still its place even when fundamentals are FAT.     Reply
  • commenter
    jaedi
    Oct 05 08:01 AM
    Ireland's Ailing Banking Sector [view article]
    Where do I start?

    Maybe I should let RTE's current affairs program do it for me:

    www.rte.ie/news/2008/1...

    The problem in the Irish financial system is twofold - a lack liquidity due to the international credit crunch - and SOLVENCY which will become all too clear when the Irish banks are forced to reveal all the hidden bad debts on their books from collapsing Irish property market.

    Although the Allied Irish Banks (AIB) share price has bounced nicely, we can look forward to extended negative shocks. Both the bank's management, the country's politicians and even the financial regulator, Patrick Neary, are effectively in complete denial about the domestic source of the problem - huge property speculation financed by the banks, and completely useless regulation which permitted the leveraging to explode with no basis in fundamentals. The massive deleveraging process taking place across the globe will be magnified in Ireland.

    So why are we not seeing this in their balance sheets? As one Irish senator put it - Irish banks are incestuous - among themselves and with their clients. They're in bed with the property developers and constructors to such an extent that they are avoiding calling in their loans which are massively in breach of the covenants (conditions) already. The values of the assets on the banks' balance sheets is now completely unrealistic and therefore the amount of bad debt is invisible to investors doing their due diligence.

    At least, it will be an interesting fourth quarter. Avoid AIB, (ALBK on the London Stock Exchange) and IRL (Ireland ETF) for the moment.     Reply
  • commenter
    swaps
    Oct 04 02:42 PM
    Ireland's Ailing Banking Sector [view article]
    I have a few shares of AIB bought earlier this year after it tanked. Several different analysts in different media said it was good buy and was not involved in subprime. Of course, it tanked even more in recent months. It is barely breaking even. So I should do more due diligence than rely on several apparently unrelated experts who agree. And not be sentimental about ancestral Ireland, which now has a half million African and Mideast foreigners there as resident workers. But then the globalists hate individuality.

    I bought a few shares of IRL around two years ago, and then added some more earlier this year. So this is further proof that international diversity has to be more carefully thought out and executed.

    I will continue to hold both and will add to both in the future to cost average. But no more money goes in right away.

    One thing I found interesting in New Ireland's annual report was that it did not list major shareholders. It simply said all shares were held by Cede, the clearing house trust that holds all shares presumably, which is a scary thought. We really do not seem to own our shares. We have a claim on them. Sometimes I wonder what if our benificent government would resolve some future economic calamity by turning everyone's shares held in CEDE to some foreign creditor with claims on the nation and its inhabitants. But that is off topic.     Reply
  • commenter
    Chris B
    Oct 03 08:50 AM
    Ireland's Ailing Banking Sector [view article]
    I am underwater on AIB. I bought it cheap and it got cheaper. Yet at a PE of something like 2, and at less than book value, I'll stay aboard. Low prices, after all, are not a good reason to sell anything.

    A leading and profitable bank in one of the world's most educated and developed countries, with assets in Poland and the US that it could sell to raise emergency cash if ever needed, and with government backing of deposits that has caused a flood of deposits has got to be worth more than that.     Reply
  • commenter
    Here's a
    thought
    Oct 01 11:35 AM
    Ireland's Ailing Banking Sector [view article]
    I own shares of IRE and have been following this for sometime. I am way underwater on them of course but I have continued to hold on because I have yet to see any solid or convincing evidence of why. Tough times ahead but people still need banks. Reply
  • commenter
    LittleGuy
    Oct 01 09:22 AM
    Ireland's Ailing Banking Sector [view article]
    Agreed, Georealist.

    Carl took a blind and erroneous hit on AIB on his last piece. We asked for clarification then and never received it.

    I hope you have better luck in holding him acountable.     Reply
  • commenter
    Georealist
    Sep 30 08:46 PM
    Ireland's Ailing Banking Sector [view article]
    A VERY typical Alpha piece..lots of little "buzzwords".... analysis and...OF COURSE...one's picture and name. So..what is the analysis...???
    Where is AIB going from here?
    Is the Ireland property market likely to hold up better or worse than most EU countries?
    What are AIBs strengths and weaknesses...what's the story????     Reply
  • commenter
    Dividends
    Anonymous
    Sep 30 12:55 PM
    My Website
    Ireland's Ailing Banking Sector [view article]
    I was in the UK during most of March and each business professional I met with talked confidently about how the US housing & credit woes wouldn't have a contagion effect on Europe or the rest of the world. I heard the usual buzz terms like "well capitalized", "strong lending practice" and "conservative consumer debt".

    Its unfortunate but it looks as though "risk" is the word that is being redefined.     Reply
  • commenter
    david rojas
    Sep 24 06:44 PM
    Six More Countries Join the Fight Against Short Selling [view article]
    Hey guys, what is short selling? No joke, Im just learning all of this stuff
    Dave     Reply
  • commenter
    WeeklyTA
    Sep 22 01:36 PM
    My Website
    Six More Countries Join the Fight Against Short Selling [view article]
    haha..forgot

    Disclosure: NONE!     Reply
  • commenter
    DonSuper
    Sep 22 01:35 PM
    Six More Countries Join the Fight Against Short Selling [view article]
    were you caught naked shorting?
    you should include a disclosure line...     Reply
  • commenter
    Loch Garman
    Sep 11 12:19 PM
    Allied Irish Banks: With 9% Dividend, This Bank Could Thrive [view article]
    Excellent analysis and write up David. I especially liked the link to the long-leaf annual presentation.

    That was a very important point that Mason Hawkins mentioned regarding the bank knowing each and every one of their customers. Thats the way it is done here in Ireland.

    The population in Ireland has been growing and is currently 4 million people. The population in Ireland before the great potato famine was 8 million. Our population will grow and return to 8 million perhaps by 2040 to 2050. At present there is a baby boom. All these people will need banking facilities :-)

    Eamonn
    Value investor Ireland
    Reply
  • commenter
    thomas728
    Sep 10 07:06 AM
    Replacement Candidates for David Merkel's Portfolio: From AA to ZZ [view article]
    Hey guy........where is WaMu ? Every portfolio needs a solid
    financial.

    Mr. Nygren     Reply
  • commenter
    Daniel
    Jacome
    Sep 04 04:36 PM
    My Website
    Replacement Candidates for David Merkel's Portfolio: From AA to ZZ [view article]
    can we dump this into a spreadsheet next time and rank them a bit. this is just another snow job: ) Reply
  • commenter
    David D.
    Sep 03 07:15 PM
    Allied Irish Banks: With 9% Dividend, This Bank Could Thrive [view article]
    The question raised by Mr. Johnson (i.e. "User 190898") is a fair one which I perhaps should have addressed inside the article.

    Ireland does withhold 20% as per the EU norm, UK excepted, I believe. Canada does the same. However, it is very easily reclaimed on your tax filing irrespective of your tax bracket or filing status. That is to say, you still get 100% of the dividend, you just get some of it as a credit on your taxes. It takes the form of an entry in box 6 of form 1099-DIV from the brokerage firm indicating the foreign tax paid. This full amount is then entered for a credit on the second side of the standard 1040. On the 2007 verion of the 1040, it was line 51, titled, "Foreign Tax Credit." It is terribly easy to accomplish and, when dealing with publicly traded stocks, as opposed to control stakes in a private, foreign-domiciled businesses, there are no extra supplemental forms.

    While easily done, I fully concede that a more rigorous analysis of AIB's pluses and minuses would entail a time value of money calculation taking into account some months of lost interest on that withheld 20%.

    The Irish government's tax policy, a matter of remarkable clarity, is outlined in the link below.

    Cordially,
    DD


    www.idaireland.com/upl...
     Reply
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