Ireland's Department of Finance has raised approximately EUR 652 million from the sale of a 5% stake in AIB Group through an accelerated bookbuild completed in January 2025, continuing the state's gradual exit from a lender that required EUR 21 billion in government support between 2009 and 2011. The secondary offering, priced at EUR 5.60 per share, reduces the government's holding in AIB to about 12.5%.
Accelerated bookbuilds allow a seller to place a large block of shares with institutional investors over a compressed timeframe, typically overnight, minimising market disruption and execution risk compared with a lengthy public offering. The Irish government has used this mechanism on several previous occasions to reduce its AIB stake.
STATE OWNERSHIP
The EUR 21 billion in state support injected between 2009 and 2011 left the Irish government as majority shareholder.
AIB was relisted on the Dublin and London stock exchanges in 2017. Since that relisting, the government has sold down its position through a series of transactions.
PROCEEDS TO DATE
The EUR 652 million raised in the January 2025 transaction brought the total returned to the State from its investment in AIB to about EUR 17.9 billion, still short of the roughly EUR 21 billion it injected.
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