The Irish Department of Finance has completed the disposal of its remaining stake in AIB Group, ending its shareholding in the bank. The final disposal, an accelerated bookbuild of the state's remaining shareholding of about 2% completed on 17 June 2025, returned AIB Group to full private ownership eight years after the state began selling down its stake at AIB's 2017 relisting.
AIB required about EUR 21 billion in state support between 2009 and 2011 as Ireland's property bubble collapsed. The cost of the banking crisis forced Dublin to seek an international bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
EARLIER DISPOSALS
The Irish government reduced its shareholding in AIB through a series of phased disposals. An earlier round of partial disposals took place in January 2025, reducing the government's position ahead of the final exit.
At its peak, the state held a controlling stake in AIB.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said the transaction was the State's seventh such disposal in AIB and 'will reduce the State's directed shareholding in the bank to zero'.
STATE SHAREHOLDINGS
The full privatisation of AIB removes the government from the shareholder register of one of Ireland's two largest retail banks. The state previously wound down its crisis-era stake in Bank of Ireland over a number of years.