REPORTS THAT Bank of Ireland recently met US-based private equity player Texas Pacific Group (TPG), which is backed by Ryanair chairman David Bonderman, about a possible investment will no doubt have sparked an interest within the ranks of the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF).
According to its own website, the NPRF has pumped €93 million to date into TPG as part of its portfolio of private equity investments, which accounts for about 8 per cent, or €1.3 billion, of the money it manages on our behalf.
According to the website, €36 million of this was invested just this year in TPG's Fund V1.
The balance of €57 million was put into Fund V in 2006 - a mere drop in the ocean of a fund that amounted to about $12 billion (€9.3 billion).
It remains to be seen if the talks with TPG come to anything and the NPRF might ultimately be a vehicle used by the State to invest in Bank of Ireland and other banks.
Separately, the recent flux in the Irish banking sector has resulted in public relations firm Drury Communications stepping down as an external adviser to Bank of Ireland. Drury also acts for Anglo Irish Bank and, with various forms of mergers and acquisitions on the table, it seems it was decided that a potential conflict of interest existed.
"It was a mutual decision," said a spokesman for Bank of Ireland.
