Ireland poised to launch bank rescue plan: report

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By Andras Gergely

DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Irish government is on the brink of launching a multi-billion euro rescue plan for the country's banks, including an injection of taxpayers' money, the Irish Independent newspaper reported on Wednesday.

A finance ministry spokesman declined to comment.

"It is understood the government has now accepted that it will have to put public money into the banks," the Irish Independent said.

Shares in Irish banks soared after the report, reversing some of their recent heavy losses, with Anglo Irish Bank up as much as 31 percent at one stage. At 4:38 a.m. EST it was 22.7 percent higher at 1.02 euros. Bank of Ireland was up 8.5 percent at 1.01 euros.

"It's very much retail investors buying into speculation in the press today of some sort of restructuring of the Irish banks," one Dublin-based trader said, adding that institutional investors awaited detailed news of a rescue plan.

Ireland was one of the earliest to respond to the credit crunch with a guarantee for bank debt worth some 440 billion euros ($556 billion), but it has not bailed out or nationalized any banks, and they have not raised equity themselves.

The four Irish listed banks have come under increased pressure to raise their capital ratios to match those of UK peers after a state bailout there.

The finance ministry held talks with the financial regulator and the central bank on Tuesday night, a spokeswoman for the central bank said, declining to elaborate.

"The pace of something happening has stepped up a gear," said Anna Lalor, analyst at Goodbody Stockbrokers, adding that the regulator may let some of the banks raise their capital ratios gradually, or it could press for faster recapitalization.

The Irish Independent said Finance Minister Brian Lenihan had a number of options to recapitalize banks, including buying ordinary shares, preference shares or co-investing with private money.

"Market sources believe the state would prefer to buy preference shares, as this would allow it to take an annual dividend, even as banks scrap a payout to ordinary shareholders over the lifetime of the guarantee scheme," the paper said.

FOREIGN INVESTORS

Prime Minister Brian Cowen said on Tuesday the government was looking into the capital ratios of banks and their business plans, repeating that it did not rule out recapitalization as an option.

"The idea that recapitalization on its own provides the means by which increased access to lines of credit are available to business is not a comprehensive picture," Cowen said on Tuesday.

In another report, the Irish Times said the government was in discussions with a number of international investors, including several private equity firms, about injecting fresh capital into Irish banks following deep falls in their shares.

Private equity investor JC Flowers has been in "tentative" contact with the government about the possibility of buying into a bank, with an investment in Bank of Ireland considered possible, the Irish Times said.

A Bank of Ireland spokeswoman said it did not comment on speculation. Spokesmen for JC Flowers in London were not immediately available for comment.

Last week Bank of Ireland Chief Executive Brian Goggin said he could not rule out raising equity, but it was not on the agenda at that moment.

The government has also received other approaches from Europe and the Middle East about private investment in the banks, the Irish Times said.

(Editing by John Stonestreet and Rupert Winchester)

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