AIB to return €1.7bn to shareholders after bumper profit
Padraic Halpin, Reuters
AIB has announced plans to boost shareholder returns more than four-fold after higher interest rates helped the bank more than double its full-year after-tax profit and lift profitability targets, sending shares up 4 per cent.
The State's highly concentrated banking sector makes more of its profit through interest revenue than its European peers. AIB raised its net interest income guidance three times last year, eventually delivering an 83 per cent jump to €3.84 billion.
That boosted the bank's profit to €2.1 billion from €765 million. It plans to return €1.7 billion to shareholders, €696 million of it via dividends and the rest through a directed share buyback with the Government that could cut its stake to around 34 per cent from just under 40 per cent currently.
That equated to a payout ratio of 82 per cent of profit after tax, above AIB's target of 40-60 per cent. The bank said that represented the start of a return of excess capital to shareholders promised at its 2017 IPO.
AIB shares rose 4 per cent in early trading as investors gave its plans a better reception than a similar hike in distributions by main rival Bank of Ireland, which was overshadowed by a weaker than expected outlook and increase in its 2023 profits.
Shares in Bank of Ireland, the country's largest lender, fell by as much as 13 per cent last Monday. It has since recovered more than half of that fall.
AIB, one of two dominant lenders in a market that now contains just three high-street operators, almost tripled its return on tangible equity (ROTE) to 25.7 per cent last year, way above its target of boosting returns above 13 per cent by 2024.
The bank reset its targets to 2026 as a result, seeking a ROTE of 15 per cent that analysts at Davy Stockbrokers said would likely end up being conservative.
Like Bank of Ireland, AIB set aside cash to cover potential commercial real estate losses in 2024. AIB chief financial officer Donal Galvin told Reuters he expected office and retail values to begin to recover in the second half following a 5-10 per cent fall in the first half.
