AIB is to fund a €290 million hotel development at a new terminal planned for one of Europe's biggest airports.
The bank's British division, AIB GB, is providing half the finance for a 600-bed hotel at the proposed Terminal 5 for Heathrow Airport.
The development is costed at £200 million (€290 million) and AIB will provide half the funding in partnership with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
Arora International will build the hotel on a site within what will be the terminal complex, which occupies about 260 hectares between the current airport site and the M25 motorway, the orbital route around London.
It is the developer and operator behind three international and aircrew hotels at Gatwick and Heathrow airports in Britain, and a hotel in Manchester.
Businessman Surinder Arora chairs the group. He was recently named as one of the top 20 entrepreneurs in hotels and restaurants in Britain, with an estimated personal fortune of €140 million.
The Heathrow development will be a five-star 600-bedroom flagship development for the group.
It entered exclusive talks to build the facility with the Heathrow authorities late in 2004, after an extended bidding process for the right to build and operate the hotel.
AIB is the lead partner on the development. According to Frank Sullivan, banking director of its British division, the bank has an ongoing relationship with Mr Arora and his group.
AIB is involved in a number of big construction projects in the UK, including the redevelopment of stands and facilities at Ascot and Aintree racecourses.
It is the main banker to Racecourse Holdings Trust (RHT), a subsidiary of England's Jockey Club, the oldest horseracing body in the world.
Heathrow's Terminal 5 is one of the biggest building projects under way in Britain and is being developed at a cost of over €6 billion. The British Airports Authority (BAA) is its main backer.
Work began in September 2002 and the first phase is expected to be finished in 2008. The second phase will be completed in 2011.
The Arora hotel is scheduled to be finished in time to service the first phase.
It will be the central terminal for all British Airways flights in and out of the airport. Currently, these service a number of points within the airport.
British-Irish building group Laing O'Rourke is one of the main civil engineering contractors on the project.
