9th Oct 2026 17:51
(Alliance News) - Permanent TSB Group Holdings PLC on Friday dismissed interest from another suitor, and reaffirmed its commitment to an already-agreed takeover by BAWAG PSK.
Earlier on Friday, London-based in investment firm Scotchstone Capital LLP said it is considering making an offer for Permanent TSB, a Dublin-based bank.
Permanent TSB said its board "has had no contact at any time with Scotchstone" and had not received a proposal, rendering Scotchstone's announcement "highly speculative", in Permanent TSB's view, providing "no basis for further consideration".
According to Scotchstone's website, its strategy "is based on analysis-driven prudent value investing". It said there was no certainty as to whether it would proceed with an offer, or to the terms of a possible offer.
This follows a statement last Friday from Axis Capital, a Dublin-based advisory firm, that it was considering making a cash offer priced at EUR3.20 per share. Based on Permanent TSB's 545.0 million issued shares, that offer would be worth EUR1.74 billion in total.
This is 7.7% higher than the offer of EUR2.97 per share from Vienna-based lender BAWAG Group AG, a subsidiary of BAWAG PSK, which values Permanent TSB at EUR1.62 billion.
BAWAG and Permanent TSB had agreed to the terms of the takeover in April, and shareholders approved the transaction at a general meeting in July. A court sanction hearing is scheduled on October 27.
Permanent TSB had also called Axis Capital's approach "speculative", and following the interest from Scotchstone on Friday, it reiterated its commitment to the BAWAG deal.
Shares in Permanent TSB closed 2.2% higher at EUR3.01 each on Friday in London, giving the company a market capitalisation of about EUR1.61 billion. The stock is up 37% over the past year.
For its part, Axis Capital had stressed that it "treats PTSB as an Irish platform to build on, not an asset to fold into a foreign group...The goal is a durable challenger to AIB and Bank of Ireland, which is what the Minister for Finance said Ireland needed when Ulster Bank and KBC left and which was the reason the Irish government saved and kept PTSB alive in the global financial crises."
The Irish government once owned 99% of Permanent TSB, when it bought shares during the financial crisis. State ownership has since been reduced to 57% of Permanent TSB, which put itself up for sale in October last year.
By Holly Munks, Alliance News reporter
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