AIB has completed the purchase of €500 million of its own shares from the State, further reducing the Government’s stake in the lender from 24.88 per cent to 22.04 per cent, Minister for Finance Jack Chambers announced on Monday.
The buyback was announced in August after the bank posted a 30 per cent increase in its net profit to €1.11 billion.
The off-market transaction saw AIB acquire €500 million of its shares at a final price of €5.445 per share, the minister said in a statement.
The buyback is “a further positive step” towards the normalisation of the “relationship between both parties” following the Government’s bailout of the lender in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Mr Chambers said. “It continues to be this Government’s belief that banking in the main is an activity that should be provided by the private sector and that taxpayer funds which were used to support the banking sector should be recovered and put to more productive uses like enhanced delivery of public services and helping us to overcome many of the challenges we face now and into the future including areas like housing and public infrastructure.”
AIB has now returned €16.6 billion to the State since the Government began unwinding its stake in the lender in 2022. Since then, the State’s shareholding in the bank has fallen from 71 per cent to 22.04 per cent following the latest transaction.
“The State remains the largest shareholder in AIB and I will continue to assess additional opportunities for share sales as they arise,” Mr Chambers said.
The Government was advised by NM Rothschild & Sons Limited and William Fry LLP on the transaction.
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