WHEN SEAN DUNNE bought the front garden and four of the office blocks at AIB Bank Centre in Ballsbridge in 2006 for €200 million little did he think that, had he held on, he probably could have bought the entire bank.

When AIB shares plunged earlier this week to 30c the capital value of the entire business was no more that €270 million – a long way from its peak in early 2007 when it was valued at over €20 billion.

Dunne’s swoop looked particularly good value at the time, as the deal involved leasing back the office blocks to the bank on a long-term basis. Hibernian Life Pensions was also in on the act, paying over €177 million for four other blocks on the site.

For whatever mistakes they have made since, AIB staff were dab hands at reading the property market. In 2005 it secured a hefty €367 million in the sale of the new extension to the Bank Centre which was completed last year. That tranche was bought by a syndicate of private investors assembled by AIB’s stockbroking subsidiary, Goodbodys.

The bank’s timing on the sale and leaseback of a tranche of bank branches throughout the country was also spot on. Now where has all that money gone?