THE Irish Government has raised €515million by selling a further five per cent of its stake in the Allied Irish Bank (AIB) Group.
The sale, confirmed by Ireland’s Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath today, was undertaken “by way of an accelerated bookbuild (ABB) transaction”.
“The State sold a 5% stake in AIB at a price of €3.93 per share which will generate €514.83m upon settlement, bringing to €13.6bn the total amount returned to the State to date from its investment in AIB,” Minister McGrath confirmed.
“This ABB transaction represents our fourth such disposal in AIB and with each one we have achieved incremental improvements on the placing price, with this latest transaction achieving a price which was eight per cent higher than what was achieved in the previous transaction in June,” he added.
“This transaction was once again well received with significant demand from a large number of international institutional investors.”
The Minister explained that “significant progress” had been made in reducing the Government’s shareholding in AIB, which was 71% at the beginning of 2022 and now stands at 40.8%.
“While the State remains a significant shareholder in AIB, this is another important step in normalising the relationship between the State and AIB with the free float in the bank now increasing to 59.2%,” he added.
“Our remaining shareholding in AIB is worth approximately €4.3bn, so following the applicable lock-up period, we will again assess additional opportunities for share sales as they arise as it continues to be this Government’s belief that banking in the main is an activity that should be provided by the private sector.”
Following today’s sale, the Irish government is now in a “lock-up period” of approximately ninety days before it can consider another ABB sale of remaining AIB shares.
The Department of Finance has confirmed the €515m made in the latest sale will be returned to the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund.
