Bank of Ireland opens Sydney office
Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking today (18 April 2008) announces that it has expanded its niche skill-based businesses internationally with the opening of an office in Sydney, Australia. The new office, which will be called BOI Capital Australia, is part of the Group’s stated strategy to significantly reposition its geographic earnings profile outside of Ireland.
The initial focus of the team in the Sydney office will be on the project finance market. The Bank has been very active in this market since 1996 and has broad global experience across a number of project finance sectors including infrastructure, particularly PPP / PFI, environmental, energy and in oil & gas.
The new Sydney based team, which is lead by Alasdair Caush, will offer debt arranging and underwriting capability across these key sectors, principally into Australia and New Zealand.
Alasdair Caush joins the Bank of Ireland from Gamesa Energy Australia, the Australian subsidiary of Spanish wind farm developer and manufacturer, Gamesa, where he was Managing Director. Prior to this, he spent three years as General Manager Treasury and Business Development in Eraring Energy, the New South Wales Government owned generation company before which he spent over 11 years in the London and Sydney project finance markets with what is now Calyon. Other senior appointments include Greg Procter, Associate Director who joined from Ernst & Young , having spent three years with them in London and and two in Sydney) and Gavin Kessell, Manager who joined Bank of Ireland from JF Infrastructure and previous to that had been with KBC.
Tom Hayes, Chief Executive of Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking commented: “We are pleased to have now opened our first office in Sydney. It is a logical step to take given our success to date in the project finance sector and our recent focus on the Australian market. The opening of our Sydney office reflects our commitment to growing our presence outside of Ireland. It is a significant development for our business and is in line with our strategy to continue to develop niche skill-based businesses internationally. Alasdair Caush’s experience and knowledge of the Australian market will be invaluable to the team.
“Whilst our initial focus in this market is on project finance, we expect to expand into further niche sectors in Australasia in the future” he added.
At the 9th Annual Euromoney Finance Awards held in March Bank of Ireland’s Global Project Finance team won in a number of categories including:
- The European Utilities Deal of the Year was awarded for the £343 million financing of Lancashire Waste, which was completed by a group of five banks, led by Bank of Ireland’s Global Project Finance team
- Middle East IPP Deal of the Year for the Mesaieed Power deal
ENDS
Contact:
Bank of Ireland Group Contact
Anne Mathews
Bank of Ireland Group Corporate Communications
Tel: +353 1 604 3836
Note to Editors
GLOBAL PROJECT FINANCE
Bank of Ireland’s Global Project Finance team was established in 1996 and is engaged in arranging, underwriting and participating in project finance transactions in the UK, Ireland, Europe, the Middle East and North America.
The team has particular expertise in PFI (Private Finance Initiatives) and PPP (Public Private Partnerships) where it is recognized as one of the top five banks in the UK arena. The Global Project Finance deal book now has over 120 transactions with commitments amounting to over €3.5 billion.
Global Project Finance is part of Bank of Ireland’s Corporate Banking offering, which provides innovative relationship-driven advice and financing solutions to businesses across the globe.
BANK OF IRELAND
Bank of Ireland Group is the leading provider of financial services products in the Republic of Ireland and has a significant and growing presence in the UK market. It employs c. 16,000 staff, has assets of €200 billion and generated pre-tax profits of €1.091 billion in the half year ended 30 September 2007.