AIB plans to return €213 million to shareholders, including a €91 million directed buyback, it said on Thursday after reporting significant profit recovery last year.
The Irish lender swung to a full-year pretax profit of €629 million from a €930 million loss in 2020, when it set aside almost €1.5 billion to cover possible loan defaults owing to Covid-19 disruption.
It wrote back €238 million of those provisions, helping to push profit towards the €1.1 billion pre-exceptional pretax profit it made in 2019, before the pandemic struck.
The Government announced in December that it plans to reduce its 71 per cent stake in the bank over the coming months and AIB's finance chief told Reuters the bank's preference is to deal with the State on the buyback and that discussions are ongoing.
“Today I am pleased to announce that AIB Group delivered a strong performance in 2021 with a return to profitability and €213 million of proposed distributions for our shareholders,” said Colin Hunt, AIB CEO.
“It was a year of very significant progress across the Group despite uncertainties related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We accelerated the delivery of our strategy and expanded our product suite to meet our ambition of being at the heart of our customers’ financial lives.
“Guided by our social licence to operate, we maintained and extended our position as a leading force for sustainability in Ireland.
“With a strong track record of delivery, we will build on this platform for growth and continue to simplify, streamline and strengthen our business to sustainably generate value for all our stakeholders.” - Reuters
