Takeover panel rejects PTSB sale complaints from ex-banker

The Irish Takeover Panel has rejected concerns raised about the PTSB sale process from a firm cofounded by boom-time Irish banker Mark Duffy, which has also indicated it is considering an 11th-hour bid for the bank. Axis Capital, an advisory business cofounded by former Bank of Scotland (Ireland) chief executive Duffy, sent a letter to the panel on July 27th which consolidated “a number of matters” it had previously raised in relation to the proposed €1.62 billion acquisition of PTSB by Austrian banking group Bawag. The panel said that “having carefully considered the substance of all of the matters raised by Axis”, it has ruled that there is no case laid out that amounted to any breach of Irish takeover rules. The announcement comes just weeks before the High Court, which is overseeing the so-called scheme of arrangement deal for PTSB to be sold to Bawag, is due to hold its sanctioning hearing on October 27th. READ MOREAxis separately made an intervention on October 2nd saying it was considering making a bid for PTSB. Last Friday, a long-term dissenting PTSB shareholder, Scotchstone Capital, led by Piotr Skoczylas, also said it was weighing a bid for PTSB. Neither has confirmed whether it is working with an investment bank, nor whether it has secured any funding for a bid. Axis helped initiate talks in 2025 between New York private equity firm Centerbridge, the Department of Finance and PTSB over a potential deal for the Irish bank. The US group subsequently submitted a non-binding proposal in September last year for the State’s 57.5 per cent stake in the bank. Centerbridge would end up as the underbidder to Bawag in April as a formal sales process, initiated in October, concluded. Axis was reported by the Business Post in July to have been urging minority shareholders to vote against the planned Bawag deal at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) later that month. Axis said in a note circulated to shareholders that it had become “increasingly uncomfortable with the way the process has developed”, claiming there to have been “inordinate involvement from one shareholder, leaving others effectively as bystanders”.Duffy said in a post on LinkedIn, the professional social networking platform, in July that the panel should reopen the sale process to allow “all credible bidders to make their best and final bids to all shareholders”. PTSB secured backing from 91.3 per cent of shareholders – led by the Government – for the Bawag takeover at the July EGM. However, some 36 per cent of minority investors voted against the transaction at the meeting. It is expected that the High Court will be asked by some minority shareholders to order the holding of a separate vote of minority investors. PTSB has repeatedly said that it has “very strong” legal advice that only one vote is necessary.