IRISH LIFE Permanent (ILP) is compiling a shortlist of potential candidates from which it will chose its next chief executive, a spokesman for the life assurance and banking group has said.
An announcement on the new chief executive is unlikely to be made at ILP’s annual meeting on May 15th but is expected in June.
The search for a chief executive is still in its early stages, despite the fact that the company’s previous chief executive, Denis Casey, resigned last February over the €7.45 billion deposit transfers into Anglo Irish Bank last September.
Banking sources said that the group may appoint a chief executive with experience of the life business rather than banking, given that it represents two-thirds of the group’s overall earnings.
Candidates mooted to be in the running for the job include Kevin Murphy, ILP’s director of operations and chief executive of Irish Life who, with chairwoman Gillian Bowler, assumed Mr Casey’s functions following his departure.
Another candidate likely to be on the shortlist is Des Crowley, head of Bank of Ireland’s UK operations, who lost out to Richie Boucher in the running to become the bank’s chief executive.
ILP is expected to name former Ulster Bank finance director Michael Torpey as head of treasury in the coming weeks to replace David Gantly who also resigned over the Anglo deposits.
Mr Torpey left Ulster Bank in late 2007 and has more recently been working as a consultant for the Financial Regulator. In 1992, he joined the then Irish Permanent Building Society, helping to set up its treasury division.
ILP is also assessing a possible restructuring which would allow the quick sale of the group’s banking unit, Permanent TSB.
Since the group was formed with the merger of Irish Life and Permanent TSB a decade ago, the business has been structured around Permanent TSB with Irish Life established as its subsidiary.
The collapse in banking stocks has driven down ILP’s market value to such a degree that the company has argued that the share price does not reflect the true value of its life business.
The company is considering setting up a new holding company and turning the bank, life business and asset management division, Irish Life Investment Managers, into three separate subsidiaries.
ILP still considers the restructuring only a possibility at this stage but believes it would give the group flexibility and shift the focus back to the life business.
Such a change would need Government approval, given that the State has guaranteed the group, and would need to be ratified at an extraordinary general meeting.
A spokesman for the group said that it did not speculate on options that it was currently considering.
NCB Stockbrokers said that the restructuring would “facilitate a disposal of the banking business”.
The broker expects ILP’s share price “to remain volatile“ given the uncertainty around the profitability of Permanent TSB which is “highly sensitive” to bad loans and high funding costs. NCB said that it expected “further focus on potential initiatives to unlock value from its core life franchise”.
Of the six Irish guaranteed institutions, ILP was the main beneficiary of the banking measures announced in last week’s Budget.
The Government’s decision to guarantee bank bonds of up to five years will help the company, which has funding rather than capital problems, raise much long-term financing. This will help cover the shortfall – which is the largest of those of the six lenders – between deposits and loans at Permanent TSB. ILP has no exposure to the property development sector and is not expected to have to transfer loans to the State’s bad bank.
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