Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 17 November 2022

Public Accounts Committee

2021 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 7 - Office of the Minister for Finance
Finance Accounts 2021
2021 Report on the Accounts of the Public Services of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 1 - Exchequer Financial Outturn for 2021
Chapter 2 - Net Cost of Banking Stabilisation Measures
Chapter 22 - Ireland Apple Escrow Fund

9:30 am

Mr. Des Carville:

No, it is not at all. It is part of the strategy. For the larger transactions, such as the accelerated bookbuild, ABB, transactions, we invite between 15 and 20 investors on a confidential basis to be made insiders on a trade. This is on the day of the trade. We will get their feedback and this helps us with pricing, discounting and price tension. We then go to the wider market later in the day to open it up to a global investor audience. This gives us strong price discovery. In the case of the last trade we did, for example, which was earlier this month, more than 80 investors were offering to buy stock from us at various price points. I am satisfied we maximised the price we could reasonably get on that day, which is important to us.