Allied Irish Banks (AIB)

[mlkrborn]

1:36AM Allied Irish Banks: Aurelius Capital comments on co's tender offer (AIB) 2.87 : Aurelius Capital Management issued the following statement regarding the pending tender offer by Allied Irish Banks for its subordinated bonds. Aurelius is the investment manager for three funds that own such bonds. The Aurelius funds have appealed the Subordinated Liabilities Order issued last month at the request of the Irish Ministry of Finance. "We do not object to Allied Irish Banks commencing a bond tender offer during the pendency of our appeal from last month's Subordinated Liabilities Order. The new tender offer proves our contention that the Irish Ministry of Finance egregiously discriminated against US investors by excluding them from AIB's prior tender offer at a far higher price and then imposing the punitive SLO on them. It adds insult to injury that the Ministry obtained the SLO without first allowing AIB to conduct a coercive tender offer of the sort that worked for Anglo Irish Bank without resort to an SLO...The SLO represents a cure that is far worse than the disease. Resorting to the SLO rather than a commercial restructuring would save only a miniscule percentage of the amount needed to recapitalize one bank, AIB, yet it would chill foreign investment in Ireland for years to come.