The Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD, today welcomes the successful disposal of a further part of the Irish State’s shareholding in AIB Group plc (“AIB”) by way of an accelerated bookbuild (“ABB”) transaction.
Commenting on the news, Minister Donohoe stated:
“As announced earlier today, the State sold a tranche of AIB shares at a price of €2.96 per share which will generate €396.6m for the Exchequer. The transaction was well received by a large number of international institutional investors.
The State has made good progress this year in reducing its shareholding in AIB from 71.1% at the beginning of the year to 57% today. As I have previously stated, this Government believes that banking is an activity that should in the main be provided by the private sector and that taxpayer funds which were used to rescue the banks should be recovered and used for more productive purposes. As today’s news shows, we continue to make progress in achieving this goal.
As is the convention following such transactions, the State has now entered into a “lock-up” period of approximately three months before another ABB can be considered, with a slightly reduced lock-up period of approximately two months for the now paused AIB trading plan.
The State retains a 57% ownership position in AIB, and following the three month lock up period, will continue to assess additional opportunities for share sales as they arise.”