IRE (NYSE:IRE) has dropped yesterday below the $1 level, and is currently trading at $0.91. As we already know, NYSE (as well as NASDAQ) rules require that the stock maintains a price above $1 at all time, and if it drops below the $1 level, then it has 1 month to climb to at least $1, or else it’s booted out of the market (after a warning period).

This means that Bank of Ireland’s executives will most likely go for a reverse split. I think they’ll probably go for either a 1:5 (same as AIB) or 1:10. If they go with a 1:10 reverse split, then the following will happen:

– The number of shares will drop below the billion share level, and it will become only 320 million shares.
– The price of the stock will be around $9.11 (if it doesn’t go down further between now and the reverse split).
– The stock will continue to decline, because reverse splits are bad and are looked upon unfavorably by the investors.

I think both AIB and IRE are now the playgrounds of “shorters” (those who short stocks). Both of them have no future, and the serious problems in Europe are now emerging to the surface (forget about Greece and Portugal, there’s now Italy and Spain). I expect another reverse split for AIB probably in 2 months from now, I think this time they will go with a 1:10 just so they can last until the end of the year before the next reverse split.