Allied Irish Banks (AIB)
Allied Irish Banks (AIB) provides a whole lot of banking service in Ireland, the U.S., the UK, and Poland. In 
addition to all the retail and corporate banking you’d expect, they offer brokerage services, financial management, and mutual funds.
I’ve been watching the stock price for a couple of years now, and of course, as a financial, it seems to be a screaming by at just under $6 a share. Of course, I thought the same last July when the price was about $30 a share.
What I’d really like to know is how much of there fall in price is due to recession, and how much is due to something more difficult to quantify, i.e. exposure to derivatives or something else that I’ll never have enough information on to make an informed decision.
It comes down to this. While I like their healthy dividend, I wonder more than ever a) can it continue (at least at some level), and b) how much lower can this stock go? I suspect that this bank is in the too-big-to-fail category in Ireland. Still, not failing isn’t really the same as succeeding, is it? Will the Goverment of Ireland save the bank but let the investors take their lumps?
I guess that for the time being I’m (thankfully) on the sidelines. How about you?
1/20/09
Now trading at $1.52 with an indicated yield of 47%. I’m still (SOOOOOOO) happy to be on the sidelines.
PS