Court of Appeal schedules another PTSB hearing in July

PTSB has proceeded to publish a document for shareholders outlining the expected timing of its €1.6 billion takeover by Austrian group BAWAG.

The development follows a hearing in the Court of Appeal where a group of shareholders who are challenging the deal failed to get a stay on an court order which authorised PTSB to hold an extraordinary general meeting on July 30.

However, the Court of Appeal decided there will be a further hearing on July 8.

The issue relates to a challenge brought by three shareholders, led by former investment banker Piotr Skoczylas of Scotchstone Capital, who own less than 1% of PTSB.

Earlier this week the three shareholders argued in the High Court that there should be a hearing into whether the Minister for Finance Simon Harris should be categorised differently to other shareholders.

The Minister holds 57.5% of the shares in PTSB on behalf of the State following the taxpayer's bailout of bank in 2011.

Mr Harris is supportive of BAWAG's takeover offer which has been recommended by the PTSB board.

Mr Skoczylas argued in court this week that the Minister "is a different animal" to other shareholders.

But in the High Court ruled that the issue of the composition of shareholders could be dealt with when the takeover comes before the courts for approval later this year.

Speaking after today Court of Appeal hearing Mr Skoczylas said the judgement today was "important" because if the hearing on July 8 found in favour of the three shareholders the EGM meeting would not proceed.

Speaking to RTÉ News PTSB spokesperson said that "there's been no decision on the substantive nature of the issue", meaning the decision whether the Minister for Finance Simon Harris should be classified differently to other shareholders "will be dealt with later".