# New Ireland & BIAM and ICS  to be sold by Bank of Ireland



## LDFerguson (16 Apr 2010)

*EU Commission Ruling requires sale of New Ireland Assurance*



As part of the EU Restructuring Plan for the Bank of Ireland Group, the EU Commission has ruled that New Ireland Assurance Company plc, Bank of Ireland Asset Management and ICS Building Society are to be sold.
New Ireland Assurance is one of Ireland’s largest and longest established life and pension companies. The Company is profitable and very strongly capitalised. This EU ruling will not give rise to any change in the terms and security of your clients and our policyholders contracts.
Looking forward, our commitment to the independent intermediary market remains unchanged. Indeed, our financial strength and commitment to the independent intermediary market will be a key attraction to our new owner.
I can assure you the Management Team in New Ireland will keep you fully briefed on key developments as they occur. In the meantime, our focus continues to be on delivering the level of performance and service that you have come to expect and deserve from us.  
*Sean Casey
Managing Director 
New Ireland Assurance*


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## Brendan Burgess (16 Apr 2010)

Maybe Sean Quinn will put in a bid?


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## LDFerguson (16 Apr 2010)

I'll put a call in to Warren Buffett to ask him to buy Quinn Insurance and New Ireland. He likes buying insurance companies.


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## Strathspey (16 Apr 2010)

I think after buying AIB shares, Warren Buffett doesn't touch anything Irish.


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## Brendan Burgess (16 Apr 2010)

Apparently, Irish Life & Permanent has expressed its interest.


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## LDFerguson (16 Apr 2010)

I'd imagine they could only buy parts of the business. Surely an Irish Life / New Ireland / Bank of Ireland Life combined entity would be stopped by competition regulations?


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## Brendan Burgess (16 Apr 2010)

In normal circumstances, yes.

But I wonder will the competition concerns be relaxed for the greater good of the recovery of the Irish banking system.


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## LDFerguson (16 Apr 2010)

It has been said to me informally that some Irish Life staff member shareholders are unhappy that their share price has been dragged down by the bank, when in fact the life company is trading reasonably well given current market conditions and is paying a dividend to the parent, which ultimately gets sucked into the big banking black hole.  

The same sort of thing has been said to me informally by New Ireland staff / Bank of Ireland shareholders.  

Wouldn't it be ironic if New Ireland gets bought out by IL & P?  Can't imagine the New Ireland staff would be too pleased.  

Besides this, there would be the spectre of job duplication leading to redundancies.  Which would be a shame given that New Ireland is trading profitably with present staff numbers.  

I'd prefer to see New Ireland bought by a company with no current Irish life assurance business, e.g. one of the big general companies.  Or a group of investors.


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## hopalong (16 Apr 2010)

did a french company once own new ireland?


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## stuckhere (16 Apr 2010)

*BIAM funds ... what happens to them?*

Dear Brendan and LDFerguson,
I see you are talking about the insurance side of the news, so feel free to move this to a new post if you feel it should be separate, but I'm just wondering about the BIAM funds that my pension fund is partially invested in, what will happen to them ? I was made redundant about a year ago and left my pension funds with the old employer fund manager, hoping I could just transfer it to a new scheme with the new employer... Will the funds just be renamed and keep the same value, is that what happens normally or could they decrease or increase with the move ?


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## LDFerguson (16 Apr 2010)

If BIAM is sold, it should be sold as a going concern so existing BIAM funds should just be rebranded under the new owner's brand.  The new owner may decide to appoint new fund managers or leave the existing staff in situ.  New fund managers could have a positive or negative effect on the performance of the funds, depending on how good they turn out to be.


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## mtk (16 Apr 2010)

hopalong said:


> did a french company once own new ireland?


 
yes froget which one ump? they hadn;t much interest so the top guys in new ireland went looking for a buyer


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## mercman (17 Apr 2010)

LDFerguson said:


> New fund managers could have a positive or negative effect on the performance of the funds, depending on how good they turn out to be.



The sale of these entities gives Policy holders a chance to accumulate their thoughts and if they wish to be part of such a set up, or to go with a different regime of mannerly investment management. Why does one think are the reasons as to why BIAM have lost so much market share. 

In the case of New Ireland it needs a complete breath of fresh air. Their fund managers are fine but outside of this it leaves an awful lot to be desired. For those that are working in these corporates you now could realistically have a chance to be part of a credible entity. And to those that offered abhorrent customer service, I really do hope you get your just deserts.


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## mercman (11 Jun 2010)

Nearly two months have passed and there doesn't seem to be an overload of buyers. With in excess of €12 billion under management one would have thought that this one would be snapped up -- but no way , the penny has dropped


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## Kine (14 Jun 2010)

BoI  have several years to sell these don't they?


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