State further reduces stake in Bank of Ireland
The Government has reduced its stake in Bank of Ireland by a percentage point.
In a statement to the stock exchange, Bank of Ireland said the percentage of its voting rights owned by the Government through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) has decreased from 12.98% to 11.97%.
The percentage of voting rights in the bank owned by the Government through the ISIF has fallen below 12%, the bank added.
In June, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said the Government would sell part of the State’s 13.9% shareholding in Bank of Ireland over the next six months.
Mr Donohoe said the Government’s decision to sell some of the shares it owns in Bank of Ireland is based on its confidence in the economy to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also said that he anticipated the Government will continue to be a shareholder in the bank at the end of the six month period.
In total, the State put €4.7 billion into Bank of Ireland with the initial investment coming in early 2009 as the banking crisis took hold.
That year the then Minister for Finance told the National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF) to inject €3.5 billion into preference shares issued by the bank.
The following year, the State then converted €1.7 billion of this investment into ordinary shares and, in 2011, invested another €200m in equity, again via the National Pension Reserve Fund.
A further €1 billion was invested in July 2011 through Contingent Capital Notes.
Since then Bank of Ireland has returned around €6 billion to the State. This makes it the only Irish bank to have repaid the Irish taxpayer for its support.
By May of last year the State had generated a net positive cash return of at least €1.2 billion from its investment in Bank of Ireland.
Article Source – State further reduces stake in Bank of Ireland – RTE
