AIB to make £20m profit on Ringsend land sale

Allied Irish Banks is believed to have made a pre-tax profit of around £20 million on the sale of land it acquired about 10 years ago at South Bank Road in Ringsend, Dublin 4. The 12.2-acre site is reported to have been bought by a house-building firm, mainly for a residential scheme. The selling agents, Jones Lang Wootton, have refused to comment on the sale of the land, which was conducted by private tender.

The bank is apparently anxious to avoid publicity about the sale in the aftermath of the controversy over whether it had agreed an amnesty with the Revenue Commissioners on the payment of DIRT tax on bogus non-resident accounts.

The site was originally bought by the bank for less than £3 million and has now been sold for a price believed to be around £23 million.

Zoe Developments has denied consistent reports it has acquired the land.

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority was one of the under-bidders for the site, which it planned to use for a mixture of housing and a science park. The land is zoned in the draft development plan for "enterprise and employment" though it was originally bought by the bank for development as a sports centre. AIB scrapped the plan a number of years ago.

Meanwhile, a Dublin office block originally sold by the Bank of Ireland early in 1997 for £4 million and resold last February for £6.5 million, is back on the market again with an asking price of £9.5 million to £10.5 million. Fruit importers Fyffes expect to make a profit of £3 million to £4 million on the sale of 6 Burlington Road, Dublin 4, a 24,000 sq ft block which is in need of refurbishment. It is currently rented by Citibank on a shot-term lease until March, 2000, at an annual rent of £770,850. Fyffes had planned to use the 30-year-old building as a new headquarters but it has decided instead to move to the Georgian offices formerly occupied by solicitors Arthur Cox at St Stephen's Green.

Spain Courtney Doyle is to sell the Burlington Road block by tender on December 9th. There is planning permission to extend the five-storey building to provide an additional 10,000 sq ft of space.

Property developer David Arnold bought the building from the Bank of Ireland and sold it on to Fyffes at a handsome profit.