BUSINESS MAN Seán Quinn and members of his family were the largest shareholders in Anglo Irish Bank with a combined stake of 15 per cent. His various businesses are also amongst Anglo’s biggest debtors.
Twelve months ago the Quinn family stake, which was then held through contracts for difference, was valued at €1.22 billion. Following the nationalisation of the bank, the shares may be worth nothing.
Until last week, the next biggest shareholder was US investment manager Invesco which held 6.9 per cent of the bank. It has since reduced its stake to 4.7 per cent.
According to data from Davy Stockbrokers German institutional investor Dresdner owns 6.7 per cent, while Swiss bank UBS has 5.7 per cent of the outstanding Anglo stock.
Janus Capital, a Denver-based investment management company, held 5.4 per cent of Anglo through a variety of funds. At the end of last September, the firm had total assets under management of $160.5 billion.
The members of the board, under former chairman and long-time chief executive Seán FitzPatrick, also had significant holdings. FitzPatrick holds 4.9 million shares, or 0.64 per cent of the bank’s outstanding stock. He continued to add to his holding during 2007 and 2008, with his last purchase an additional 291,000 shares last September 23rd. Given the share price range on that day, this stake alone would have cost him over €1.2 million.
Former finance director Willie McAteer had 3.4 million shares as of December 2007. David Drumm, who resigned as chief executive last month, held more than 1 million shares, according to a filing made last February when he bought an additional 1,475 shares.
Tom Browne, a former executive director, held 893,00 shares in November 2007.
Information provided by Bloomberg shows a number of large institutional shareholders sold off their stakes in Anglo during 2008.
Swedish fund SBS Fondforvaltning sold more than half a million shares on September 30th, the day the Government announced an unlimited guarantee for six Irish-owned lenders including Anglo.
US investors AIM Advisors also sold 944,000 shares that day, while two Luxembourg-domiciled funds of UBS offloaded 289,00 shares.
Both the Irish Stock Exchange and the UK Listing Authority moved to suspend trading in Anglo Irish shares in Dublin and London yesterday. The shares last traded at €0.22, giving Anglo a market capitalisation of €166.91 million.
Based on advice from attorney general Paul Gallagher, the Government will appoint an independent assessor to establish the value of Anglo when it was taken into State ownership. This will determine what, if any, compensation to which shareholders are entitled.