Ireland

Irish banks will be pressed to take stakes in family homes next year in swaps for mortgage debt as part of a push to resolve some of the most distressed personal insolvency cases, the Irish Times reported. The first cases involving the use of so-called debt-for-equity swaps are expected to be decided by the courts in 2018 as the little-known measure within existing personal insolvency legislation is used to solve some of the worst mortgage arrears cases where loans have not been paid for years.

Ryanair may bid for assets of Niki, Europe’s biggest budget carrier said on Friday, as administrators scramble to find a buyer for the insolvent Austrian airline before it loses its valuable runway slots, Reuters reported. Niki, a unit of Air Berlin, filed for insolvency on Wednesday after Germany’s Lufthansa scrapped plans to buy its business, grounding the airline’s fleet and stranding thousands of passengers. “Ryanair confirmed today ...

Shareholders in AIB have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a restructuring of the bank aimed at meeting new European rules on minimising future taxpayer bailouts, the Irish Times reported. The bank, which cost €20.8 billion to rescue during the financial crisis, sought shareholder approval for the scheme at an extraordinary general meeting in Ballsbridge, Dublin, on Friday. The AIB board had unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the resolutions.

Almost a decade after the Irish economy was crippled by a banking catastrophe, the country is reopening its arms to banks to take advantage of shifts in Europe’s finance industry triggered by Brexit, The Wall Street Journal reported. Take Bank of America Corp. Once Ireland’s biggest bank by assets, the U.S. lender shifted billions of dollars’ worth of derivatives out of Dublin to London following the financial crisis.

Ireland’s recovery from the crash that led to an international bailout has reached a symbolic turning point as the country’s “bad bank” pays off the final slice of the €30.2bn senior debt it borrowed to clean up the financial system, the Financial Times reported. Nama, the national asset management agency, has signalled it will redeem the final €500m of the government-guaranteed debt this month, three years ahead of the target set at the outset of its work in 2009.

Ireland's finance minister sought to raise over 800 million euros (714.89 million pounds) in extra revenue in a budget on Tuesday to give taxpayers a "modest" break and help tackle a housing crisis. He also sought to balance the state's books for the first time in a decade. Ireland started reversing years of savage spending cuts and tax hikes in 2014 - about the time its economy began to rebound sharply from a deep financial crisis, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Ryanair Holdings Plc sought to contain the damage caused by scrapping hundreds of flights through the end of October, promising to compensate affected passengers and apologizing for the mismanagement that led to a shortage of available crews, Bloomberg News reported. With mass cancellations set to leave about 400,000 passengers in the lurch, Europe’s biggest discount airline is likely to take a 25 million-euro ($30 million) profit hit from refunds and compensation, the Dublin-based company said Monday, three days after announcing the surprise cutbacks that started on Saturday.

Ryanair will bid to operate 90 planes under the Alitalia brand and using existing staff as part of the Italian airline’s restructuring, Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said on Thursday. Ryanair has until Oct. 2 to make a binding bid for all or part of the Italian carrier, which has been put under special administration for the second time in less than a decade, Reuters reported. “We will be submitting an offer for the 90 jet aircraft, with their pilots, cabin crew, routes etc,” O’Leary told journalists at a press briefing in London.

Ryanair will not bid for any assets of insolvent German airline Air Berlin, its Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said on Wednesday, describing the process as “a stitch-up”. Air Berlin, Germany’s second-largest airline, filed for bankruptcy protection this month after shareholder Etihad Airways withdrew funding following years of losses. O’Leary, the head of the Irish budget airline, has complained that the insolvency process was designed to help strengthen leading German airline Lufthansa, Reuters reported.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that Ryanair Holdings Plc said it’s “genuinely interested” in bidding for insolvent Air Berlin Plc and called on the German company to involve it in the sale process. Ryanair could buy all or part of Air Berlin but has so far been ignored by the ailing carrier, according to Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary, who said Wednesday he’s concerned the company will be handed to Deutsche Lufthansa AG in an anti-competitive, all-German deal.