PTSB, in which the Irish State owns a 57 per cent stake, has put itself up for sale.
The bank, which had a market value of €1.28 billion as of Wednesday, has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs to manage the process, it said in a statement on Thursday.
Shares in the lender jumped 11.6 per cent on the news in early-morning trade to €2.69, a level it has not seen in 8½ years.
“The board of PTSB, with the support of its largest shareholder, the Minister for Finance of Ireland, Paschal Donohoe, has concluded that it is now in the best interests of the bank and its key stakeholders to commence a formal sale process with the intention of identifying a new long-term owner of the bank,” it said.
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PTSB, by far the smallest of the three Irish banks that survived the financial crisis, has been dogged by low returns ever since, due to its scale – even after increasing its balance sheet by about 50 per cent between 2022 and 2023 as it acquired €6.8 billion of Ulster Bank loans – and the fact it has to hold higher levels of expensive capital relative to loans than its larger peers.
The bank received a €4 billion bailout in 2011 and has so far repaid €2.75 billion. The total includes cash received from the sale of PTSB’s former sister company Irish Life, share sales, redemption of bailout bonds, guarantee fees and interest payments.
The State’s remaining stake was worth €730 million as of the close of trading in Dublin on Wednesday.
“PTSB has made great progress in building a strong competitive franchise in the Irish retail banking market as evidenced by its third quarter of 2025 trading update released today,” said Mr Donohoe. “With increased investor interest in European banks, this presents the State with the opportunity to exit its last remaining shareholding in an Irish bank after 17 years.”
PTSB reported on Thursday that its gross loans rose by 4 per cent on the year to €22.4 billion at the end of September, with new mortgage lending up 64 per cent to €2.1 billion.
However, net interest income declined by 6 per cent for the first nine months of the year, driven by the knock-on effect of lower European Central Bank rates.
“The State’s investment in PTSB was made during the financial crisis to safeguard the stability of the banking system and protect depositors. A sale of the State’s investment would be consistent with the objective of recovering taxpayer funds that were used to rescue the Irish banks and deploying these to more productive purposes,” the Minister said.
“The State has and continues to be very supportive of PTSB, and the Government believes that it is in the long-term interests of PTSB and citizens in general that the bank be returned to full private ownership.”
Bank of Ireland returned to full private ownership in 2022, when the government of the day sold its remaining shares. The State sold its final shares in AIB in June.
