Irish govt settles terms with AIB bondholder

The Irish government was allowed to push ahead with plans to impose losses on a subordinated bondholder in Allied Irish Banks on Friday after the debtholder agreed to withdraw its appeal against the state's actions, according to Reuters. Using a sweeping new financial law, Dublin offered junior bondholders at the bank the choice of accepting as little as 10 percent of the face value of their investments or seeing their holdings effectively wiped out. Aurelius Capital began a challenge against the government order last month, but a lawyer representing the New York-based investment firm told an Irish High Court that an "amicable resolution" had been reached with the state. After talks between the two sides, lawyers representing the state asked the judge to strike out the case. "An order can be made on those terms. That completes the matter," said High Court Justice John Cooke. The finance ministry said in a statement that the terms of the settlement would not be released "for commercial reasons". Ireland's government, which effectively nationalised AIB late last year in the face of mounting property losses, had squeezed 1.6 billion euros ($2.27 billion) out of investors holding AIB's junior paper before Friday's order. Dublin's policy of making junior bondholders share the burden for bailing out its banks, at the root of the country's financial crisis, has so far cut around 4 billion euros off a fresh 24-billion euro bill for propping up the sector. Finance Minister Michael Noonan said last week he expected to generate over 6 billion euros from hitting junior bondholders across the financial sector and from the sale of bank assets. ($1 = 0.705 Euros)