{"id":667197,"date":"2026-10-27T21:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T21:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/667197\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T21:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T21:50:09","slug":"small-ptsb-shareholders-paying-for-ministers-exit-in-e1-6bn-takeover-deal-court-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/667197\/","title":{"rendered":"Small PTSB shareholders \u2018paying for Minister\u2019s exit\u2019 in \u20ac1.6bn takeover deal, court hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Finance Simon Harris<\/a> was \u201cdriven by the State\u2019s commitment to exit the investment\u201d, not by the desire to achieve the best possible price for shareholders, when he voted in favour of the proposed sale of PTSB<\/a> to Austrian banking group Bawag<\/a> in July, the High Court has heard.<\/p>\n

There was \u201can issue of special interest\u201d when the T\u00e1naiste and Fine Gael<\/a> leader supported the \u20ac1.6 billion offer, a PTSB minority shareholder, Piotr Skoczylas, told Judge Michael Quinn.<\/p>\n

He is one of four shareholders objecting to the proposed acquisition at a High Court sanctioning hearing today. <\/p>\n

Quoting the Coalition\u2019s commitment in the Programme for Government of \u201cnormalising\u201d, or leaving, the Irish domestic banking market, Skoczylas said, \u201cThis is not a State secret, it\u2019s known to all its citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t blame the Government for wanting to exit this investment, because they are not bankers \u2013 they are the Irish State. The Irish State is not in the position to manage Irish banks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skoczylas is the managing director of Scotchstone Capital, which owns a stake in PTSB of less than 1 per cent. He is opposing the proposed deal to sell the bank \u2013 Ireland\u2019s third-largest domestic lender, in which the State currently holds a 57.5 per cent stake \u2013 to Bawag.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am paying, as a tiny shareholder, for the Minister\u2019s exit \u2013 he should be paying for his own exit,\u201d Skoczylas said, later pointing to a \u201cturnout of 30 per cent\u201d at the emergency general meeting in July to vote on the bid. <\/p>\n

Lyndon MacCann, the barrister acting for the Minister for Finance, responded to Skoczylas\u2019s oral submission by saying: \u201cIt\u2019s easy to make an assertion, it\u2019s different to supply evidence…<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no evidence that the Government policy resulted in the State accepting a price that it ought to not have accepted,\u201d he said, and it is \u201cnot a matter of controversy that the State has had a policy for some time to exit the banking sector\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view on the PTSB sale: stick with the planOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Kelley Smith, counsel for PTSB, said she was at \u201csomething of a loss when trying to understand\u201d much of Skoczylas\u2019s criticism of the agreement. <\/p>\n

She said the company met its statutory requirements by placing advertisements in The Irish Times, Irish Examiner and The Financial Times for takeover bids. \u201cNothing has been identified to us as a form of deficiency in the information provided to shareholders,\u201d Smith said. <\/p>\n

The court heard earlier in proceedings that Axis Capital<\/a>, the corporate advisory firm cofounded by former banker Mark Duffy, would not seek an adjournment of legal proceedings to delay the sale.<\/p>\n

The company had indicated last week it would do so in order to allow time for a \u201clarge global investment manager\u201d it had been introduced to by an investment bank to conduct \u201cits confirmatory due diligence\u201d before it submits a rival bid to buy the bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my understanding this morning they are not pursuing that, but would like the court to consider what they have to say,\u201d Smith told the court.<\/p>\n

Duffy, a former chief executive of Bank of Scotland Ireland, appeared in the courtroom alongside Lutz Hartmann, a Frankfurt-based international lawyer representing Axis Capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have followed directors and have submitted correspondence to you,\u201d Hartmann said to Judge Quinn. \u201cIt is not our intention [to act] in any way from what the rules permit.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that although Axis is unable to request an adjournment because it is not a party to the proceedings, it does \u201cwish to present facts\u201d supporting its desire for one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Finance Simon Harris was \u201cdriven by the State\u2019s commitment to exit the investment\u201d, not by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[69261,72,61,60,8580,70],"class_list":["post-667197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bawag","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ptsb","tag-simon-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}