Una McCaffrey

Talk of a possible Citigroup acquisition lifted Dublin's financial stocks by almost 4 per cent yesterday, with Bank of Ireland the biggest beneficiary of the rise.

Citigroup, the world's largest financial services firm, said it was considering purchasing specialised banks in Europe to expand quickly in the world's biggest private banking market.

"We intend to grow our European business significantly over the next few years and we would be interested in looking at acquisitions that would fit with our strategy," said Mr Peter Scaturro, chief executive of Citigroup Private Bank in an interview with Reuters.

"Europe is extremely core to Citigroup's strategy and to the private bank's strategy," Mr Scaturro said.

He added that the size of the potential takeover target - large or small - would play little role in the group's decision.

"We are not in a position where we're limited to saying that we only want to look at small institutions or we only want to look at larger institutions," he said. The target would probably offer the group specialist capability in financial engineering, he said.

Mr Scaturro's comments meant that all of the main Irish financials were in strong demand throughout yesterday's session.

Some 6.4 million shares were traded in Bank of Ireland, which gained 48 cents to close at €11.85.

More than four million shares changed hands in AIB before it finished at €13.75, up 46 cents on the day. - (Additional reporting, Reuters)