Business
PTSB sets late-March for second round takeover bids as Bawag and Centerbridge circle
DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.
PTSB is targeting late March for second-round takeover offers, with Austrian banking group Bawag and New York investment firm Centerbridge Partners said to be among parties still circling the State-controlled bank, according to sources.
Lone Star, the Texas-based private equity giant led by Irish passport holder John Grayken, also counts among those that committed resources to assessing a PTSB offer, sources said. However, it is not clear whether it remains in the mix. Goldman Sachs is running the sale process for PTSB.
Spokeswomen for PTSB and Centerbridge and a spokesman for Lone Star declined to comment. Representatives for Bawag did not respond to a request for comment.
The sensitive stage means that PTSB chief executive Eamonn Crowley will be restricted in what he can say on the process when he presides over the announcement of the bank’s annual results on Thursday next week.
Bawag chief executive Anas Abuzaakouk highlighted on a call with analysts earlier this month that the Republic was one of the EU’s “most robust banking markets” as his bank assesses “a number of market opportunities”. He added that he expected to be in a position to outline what Bawag plans to do with its “excess capital and overall capital allocation” by the time it reports first-quarter results on April 21st.
Bawag bought Irish mortgages start-up Moco in 2023 and was reported last month to be in exclusive talks to buy Finance Ireland, a non-bank provider of car, commercial property, agri- and small-business loans, for as much as €300 million. It also bought what remained of Dublin-based Depfa Bank from a German state bad bank in 2021 as that lender was in the process of being wound down.
The Vienna-based lender ended 2025 with €468 million of surplus capital – or capital held in reserve that is above its own target. Analysts in UBS said in a report last month that Bawag would most likely fund a potential offer for PTSB through cash and shares.
Using new Bawag shares to help fund a deal would lead to a complicated situation of the Irish Government which owns 57 per cent of PTSB, ending up with a stake in a foreign-owned bank. However, some observers say this could allow Irish taxpayers to share some of the upside from an earnings-boosting deal – and counter claims of PTSB being sold on the cheap.
Centerbridge has been an active bidder for assets in the European banking sector in the past decade or so.
In 2015, the firm acquired Italian lender BFF Bank, a specialist in providing finance to businesses based off trade receivables. It went on to float the business in Milan in 2017 and gradually sold its remaining shares over the next four years.
Centerbridge joined forces with fellow US private equity firm Advent International and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to buy German property lender Aareal Bank – a one-time part of Depfa group – in 2023 for €1.7 billion.
In 2024, Centerbridge agreed to acquire Italian small business lender Banca Progetto from another US investment firm, Oaktree Capital. However, that deal fell through after the bank was placed under court administration for allegedly giving loans to companies linked to the mafia.
Lone Star purchased IKB Deutsche Industriebank in 2008 and went on to buy 75 per cent of Portugal’s Novo Banco in 2017, before agreeing to sell the latter, which is led by Irishman Mark Bourke, to French banking giant Groupe BPCE last summer. The firm also attempted in 2022 to buy Bank of Cyprus.
