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NIB needs to sell further E5B in assets

Wednesday, October 31 08:17:18

National Irish Bank (NIB) has admitted that it may be "some time" before it receives an offer for around E4.7bn of "non-core" assets it is looking to sell. NIB's parent, Danske Bank, has launched an effort to raise E940m in fresh investment. This is aimed in part at improving its credit rating in an effort to lower its borrowing costs. Shares in the Copenhagen-listed bank fell sharply yesterday after it announced its financial results.

In Ireland, the bank expects to be hit with further significant losses over the next six months, after being forced to write off nearly E600m on property loans when it announced results for the first nine months of 2012. NIB said its Irish unit suffered operating losses of E8m in the first nine months. The bank set aside E578m to cover losses on property loans over the same period. The Irish loan impairments made up almost half of the E1.3bn of impairments suffered across the entire Danske Bank. The latest operating losses mean a negative swing of E40m, compared to the operating profits of E32m in the same nine-month period last year.