AIB in position to repay ‘sizeable chunk’

AIB will be in a position to repay a "very sizeable chunk" of capital to the State in the "not too distant future", its chief executive Bernard Byrne told the annual dinner of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce last night.

“The Minister for Finance [Michael Noonan] will determine when and how the bank will return more capital to the State through an initial public offering but you can be assured that we will be ready, when he makes that decision,” Mr Byrne said, citing the bank’s improved financial performance.

AIB and its subsidiary EBS received a combined €20.8 billion in bailout funds from the State following the financial crash in late 2008. The AIB chief said that “in time” the Minister would be in a position “where he can get back all of the money the State invested in AIB”.

Mr Byrne told the chamber audience that AIB approved almost €9 billion in business and personal lending to customers in the first eight months of this year as it seeks to support the economic recovery. ‘Progress’ “Economic momentum will see this continue to increase as we progress through the remainder of the year,” he said.

In the past year, AIB’s initiative whereby business loan approvals for up to €30,000 can be granted within 48 hours had received more than 14,000 applications.

“Almost half of our loans were completed online in the past six months,” Mr Byrne added.

In addition, AIB opened about 17,000 “start-up” business current accounts in the past year. “These are not just numbers, they are real new businesses, which will fuel sustainable economic growth and employment in the years to come,” he said.

Separately, AIB has teamed up with cloud services provider Business Centric Services Group Ltd to offer customers a suite of business applications, called MyBusinessToolkit, at a discounted rate.

The bank said this would help companies to manage their accounts and payroll, build a business website and online shop, create a professional business plan, record expenses at the click of a button, and protect their business files through data back-up. Access to the five tools costs €15 a month.

"We are not only offering big savings to small businesses on these applications, we are also encouraging small businesses to use these cloud-based tools to help them start, manage and grow their business," AIB's head of business banking Ken Burke said.

The Dublin Chamber event was also addressed by the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny and Jo Malone, the perfume entrepreneur.

Ms Malone, who founded the Jo Malone perfume brand in 1994 before selling it to Estée Lauder in 1999, told the audience that "passion, resilience and creativity" constituted the magical combination, central to entrepreneurism, which helped her create a global perfume business from the age of 21. Ms Malone, who is dyslexic and did not attend university, recalled the early days of her success in Jo Malone. "I saw the growth of my business every single day," she said. "It just climbed and climbed and climbed." Stuck to the shelves That was despite the morning of its opening when, with queues outside, she discovered all the products had stuck to the shelves. "The things that go wrong are as important as the things that go right," she said.

"Making mistakes is important because it teaches you muscle." Ms Malone has since set up a new brand, Jo Loves, which emerged after she beat a cancer diagnosis.

Cautioning her audience on the world of successful entrepreneurism, she added: “Enjoy the journey. You know that taste of honey in your mouth when you have success is the greatest motivation.

“We work so hard, sometimes we forget to enjoy the moment.”