Bank of Ireland starts tender offer for 13 3/8% subordinated bonds

By Jennifer Chiou

New York, Aug. 24 - The Bank of Ireland launched a cash tender offer for its £75 million 13 3/8% perpetual subordinated bonds, according to a 6-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The securities were originally issued by Bristol & West plc.

The bank is offering a total cash consideration of £40.20 per £100 of notes, consisting of a purchase price of £35.00 plus accrued interest of £5.20.

The offer is set to end at 11 a.m. ET on Sept. 22. Settlement will follow on Sept. 26.

On March 31, the Central Bank of Ireland announced an increase in the level of capital that specified Irish financial institutions are required to hold to help them absorb any future losses, the filing stated.

Bank of Ireland was mandated by the Central Bank of Ireland to raise €4.2 billion of core tier 1 capital and €1 billion of contingent capital in order to satisfy those requirements, the 6-K said.

When the offers to exchange several series of the bank's tier 1 and tier 2 securities began earlier this year, the bank also offered to exchange the 13 3/8% perpetuals, but that particular offer was terminated on June 28. The exchange for the remaining securities ended on July 7.

As reported, the 13 3/8% bonds were issued in registered form, and a significant number of the holders hold their bonds in certificated form outside the clearing systems. On June 14, the bank said this would make it difficult for these holders to participate in the exchange offer by the early participation deadline, and it had extended the early deadline for these holders to July 5 so they would not be disadvantaged.

Questions may be directed to Brian Kealy, head of capital management (353 76 623 4719), and Colin Reddy, capital management (353 76 623 4722).

The information agent is Lucid Issuer Services Ltd. (44 20 7704 0880 or fax 44 20 7067 9098; attn: Yves Theis, Sunjeeve Patel, boi@lucid-is.com).

The dealer managers are Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd. (44 20 7883 8763 or liability.management@credit-suisse.com), Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch (44 20 7545 8011 or liability.management@db.com) and UBS Ltd. (44 20 7567 0525 or OL-Liability-Management@ubs.com).

Bank of Ireland is a Dublin-based retail and commercial bank.

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