Bank of Ireland agrees to €2.7bn capital raise

Bank of Ireland says the additional €2.7bn of capital the government has told it to raise will see it through the current recessionary crisis in Ireland as it revealed huge losses for the last nine months of 2009."The bank believes raising this level of capital would result in its Equity Tier 1 and Core tier 1 ratios, as at 31 December 2010, being greater than the 7% and 8% levels respectively targeted by the Financial Regulator, the NAMA process having been completed by that date," Bank of Ireland said. The bank, which reported a loss of €1.8bn for for the nine months to last December, has to raise the extra funds by the end of this year in conjunction with its participation in Ireland's toxic asset scheme, known as NAMA. It expects to raise a 'substantial amount' of the incremental capital required from existing shareholders, with the Irish State committed to converting part of its 2009 Preference Stock in the bank into ordinary equity to help the process, it said.Underlying losses at the bank climbed to €3bn as it wrote down the value of loans to customers by more than €4bn. Chief executive Richie Boucher admitted the situation within the Irish economy still remains dire. All told, Ireland's banks have a capital shortfall of up to €32bn, the country's regulator and finance ministry said yesterday, a much higher figure than expected.NAMA will acquire €16bn ($21.5bn, £14.3bn) of the most dubious loans issued by the Irish banks, which are mainly in property. It willpay only €8.5bn for them, with the 47% discount to book value much higher than earlier forecasts of a 30% markdown. To help meet the capital shortfall, the Irish government is expected to end up as the owner of all of the country's major banks except Bank of Ireland, where it could own a 40% stake.