Wilbur Ross - on Bank of Ireland and State involvement

28 Jul 2011 CNBC
[Background: Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings and US buyout firm WL Ross & Co have each taken a 9 per cent stake (for a reported 1.1 billion euro, $1.58 billion) in Bank of Ireland. Deutsche Bank has been managing the takeover deal. Bank of Ireland has $140bn in assets and is the largest bank in Ireland.]

"France wanted them (Ireland) to raise the corporate tax rate as a quid pro quo. They said no. What's happening is that Ireland is fixing the economy unlike the club-med countries. Ireland is making it work. They had 2% growth in the most recent quarter. So the notion you can't cut back government spending without destroying the economy is simply wrong at least in their case.

Ireland had set up an entity called NAMA (National Asset Management Agency). Government will continue to have a 20% stake and will have two seats on the board. They will also be the regulator for the bank. Bank of Ireland also has a huge joint venture with the Post office system in the UK. 11,500 Post offices distribute the bank's products in the UK and it has a branch in Connecticut.

The government desperately wants all these banks re-privatized as quickly as possible. Bank of Ireland is easily the healthiest of the banks. The country of Ireland now has no sovereign debt financing needs until 2013. I wish our country was in as good a shape."

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