Scottish bank not among ICC suitors

Bank of Scotland has not made any offer for ICC Bank, The Irish Times has learned. The bank, which owns Equity Bank and has signalled its interest in expanding in the Irish market, was widely considered to be one of the serious competitors for ICC. Its failure to make a bid by last Monday's noon deadline would have been a disappointment to the Department of Finance. It could limit the extent of the competition for ICC in the second round of the offer.

Bidders which have been short-listed to the second round, in which they will be given additional sensitive commercial information about ICC's operations, are expected to be notified today or tomorrow. So far, Bank of Ireland has confirmed its interest while Irish Intercontinental Bank and the Dutch-owned Nationale Investo rings are also said to have put in bids. All of the bidders and their advisers have had to sign confidentiality agreements prohibiting them from discussing their involvement. Equity bank chief executive, Mr Mark Duffy confirmed that Bank of Scotland had examined the ICC memorandum and had decided against bidding for the State-owned bank.

"The time schedules were very tight. We put a team in and had a good look at it. But we decided that it was just not a good enough fit for us and we could not justify a bid at any consideration given the work it would take to put the two businesses together."

Bank of Scotland, which came into the Irish market this week to sell mortgages direct to home buyers, was "very serious" about expansion in the Irish market, he stressed. "The bank has put time and money into assessing its strategy to expand and grow Equity Bank and we plan to make suitable acquisitions to achieve that growth," he said.

Equity Bank is understood to be close to agreement on an acquisition which will add between 20 and 25 per cent to total assets.

Mr Duffy dismissed as "ridiculous" rumours around the financial markets yesterday that Bank of Scotland missed the bid deadline and that, as a result, its bid was not accepted. "Bank of Scotland is a very serious player. That just would not happen," he said.