Anglo Irish Bank -- Preliminary Results

Dublin (PRWEB) November 30, 2007

Anglo Irish Bank today (Wednesday 28 November 2007) released its preliminary statement for the year to 30 September 2007. Key highlights include:

Profitability and shareholder value

•          Underlying profit before taxation of €1,221 million, up 44%
•          Reported profit before taxation of €1,243 million, up 46%
•          Record underlying earnings per share of 131.7 cent, an increase of 41%
•          Return on equity of 30%
•          Final dividend proposed of 13.01 cent bringing total dividend for the year to 19.49 cent, an increase of 20% on 2006

Operational Performance

•          Lending to customers increased by €18 billion net, up 37% on a constant currency basis, to €67.1 billion
•          Excellent asset quality with impaired loans of 0.50% of the closing loan book

(2006: 0.52%)

•          Total funding growth of €25.5 billion with customer deposits up by €16.7 billion or 46%
•          Continued improvement in cost to income ratio to 22.3%
•          Strong capital position with a Tier 1 Capital ratio of 8.6%
•          Record lending work in progress of €9.8 billion

Commenting on the results, David Drumm, Group Chief Executive, said:

"2007 has been another outstanding year for the Bank with high quality lending growth of €18 billion and underlying earnings up 44% to €1,221 million.

Asset quality remains excellent with a specific impairment charge of 9 basis points, consistent with last year. The Bank has a resilient funding platform, excellent liquidity and capital strength - these position us well to take advantage of the significant potential in each of our core markets while maintaining our relentless focus on asset quality.

We are confident that our proven organic strategy will continue to deliver strong performance in the years ahead and anticipate underlying earnings per share growth in excess of 15% in 2008."

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