IRISH LIFE and Permanent chief executive Kevin Murphy plans to retire at the end of this year, following the transfer of its life business to State ownership yesterday.
The €1.3 billion sale of the Irish Life Group to the State was formally completed yesterday after the High Court shot down a bid by a number of shareholders on Thursday to prevent the transfer.
As a result, Mr Murphy and colleague David McCarthy resigned from the board of Permanent TSB Group Holdings, owner of Permanent TSB Bank. They will stay with Irish Life as chief executive and finance director respectively.
However, Mr Murphy told the Irish Life board that he intends to step down by the end of the year as he has reached 60, the normal retirement age for the group’s chief executive. A statement said that Mr Murphy would remain on to ensure a smooth transition to a new chief executive, who will be chosen following a formal selection process.
His announcement came days after it emerged that Mr Murphy passed the Central Bank’s fitness and probity test.
The sale of Irish Life Group completes the recapitalisation of Permanent TSB Bank. The State also owns 99.2 per cent of the bank, while the balance is traded on the Irish Stock Exchange.
The Central Bank ordered the recapitalisation of the Republic’s main financial institutions in March of last year.
Since then, the State has pumped €4 billion into Permanent TSB bank, which was one of the biggest mortgage lenders during the last decade’s property boom.
