AIB profits up by 53% to €2.6 billion

Allied Irish Banks posted a 25 per cent rise in 2006 earnings today and forecast percentage growth in the current year to be in the low double digits.

Underlying earnings per share last year rose to 182.8 cents from 145.9 cents in 2005, beating the 178.5 cents average of 21 analysts' forecasts on Reuters Estimates.

In a trading statement issued in December, AIB had reiterated that it expected 2006 earnings to rise by more than 20 per cent.

Operating income, a measure of revenues that excludes costs such as interest charges and commission expenses, rose 18.6 per cent to €4.33 billion versus analysts' expectations of €4.24 billion.

That, together with a boost from property sales, helped push pretax profit up by 53 per cent to €2.62 billion.