Allied Irish Banks is valued at a healthy US$13.3b in IPO

London

NEARLY seven years after its collapse almost brought down Ireland's banking system and forced the government to bail it out, one of the country's biggest lenders returned to the public markets on Friday with a healthy valuation of US$13.3 billion.

The offering of a 25 per cent stake in the lender, Allied Irish Banks (AIB), is an important milestone in the recovery of Irish banks, which nearly bankrupted the country after the financial crisis.