Another suitor signals interest in Permanent TSB amid BAWAG takeover

Permanent TSB Group Holdings PLC on Friday received interest from another suitor, a week after a separate Dublin-based advisory firm had signalled that it may be willing to offer more than the agreed buyer, BAWAG PSK.

London-based investment firm Scotchstone Capital LLP said it is considering making a possible offer for Permanent TSB, a Dublin-based bank.

According to Scotchstone's website, its strategy "is based on analysis-driven prudent value investing".

"We buy stakes in businesses - not speculate in securities. We believe that long-term value embedded in the stock market is intrinsically linked to the fundamental value generation," Scotchstone said.

It said there was no certainty about whether it would proceed with an offer, or the terms of a possible offer.

This follows a statement last Friday from Axis Capital, a Dublin-based advisory firm, that it is considering making a cash offer priced at EUR3.20 per share. Based on Permanent TSB's 545.0 million issued shares, that offer would be worth EUR1.74 billion in total.

This is 7.7% higher than the EUR2.97 per share offer from Vienna-based lender BAWAG Group AG, a subsidiary of BAWAG PSK, which values Permanent TSB at EUR1.62 billion.

BAWAG and Permanent TSB agreed to the takeover terms in April, and shareholders approved the transaction at a general meeting in July. A court sanction hearing is scheduled on October 27.

Permanent TSB shares were up 5.3% to EUR3.10 each on Friday morning in London, giving the company a market capitalisation of about EUR1.62 billion. The stock is up 41% over the past year.

In a statement on Monday, the company described Axis Capital's approach as "highly speculative" and reaffirmed its commitment to the BAWAG deal.

Permanent TSB is yet to release a statement in response to Scotchstone's expression of interest.

For its part, Axis Capital had stressed that it "treats PTSB as an Irish platform to build on, not an asset to fold into a foreign group...The goal is a durable challenger to AIB and Bank of Ireland, which is what the Minister for Finance said Ireland needed when Ulster Bank and KBC left and which was the reason the Irish government saved and kept PTSB alive in the global financial crises."

The Irish government once owned 99% of Permanent TSB, when it bought shares during the financial crisis. State ownership has since been reduced to 57% of Permanent TSB, which put itself up for sale in October last year.

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