Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, the State has now sold 25% of AIB's ordinary share capital at a price of €4.40 per share for a consideration of almost €3 billion. The offering was strongly supported by a broad range of international institutional investors, with all of the top investors being categorised as longer term investors and sovereign wealth funds. The State also granted an additional over-allotment option to its appointed stabilisation agent Deutsche Bank, covering a further 3.75% of AIB's ordinary share capital as part of the transaction. Hence, unless some of the shares are bought back in the market in the period post-floatation, the State will recoup a further €400 million, bringing the total proceeds from the IPO to €3.4 billion.

Following the AIB IPO, the State's remaining shareholding in the bank is in a lock-up period of 180 days. This is standard market practice. I, therefore, expect no further sale of AIB shares in 2017. After this period elapses, officials in my Department will revert to monitoring the performance of the bank, its share price and equity markets more generally to determine the next sensible opportunity to realise and gain value from our investment. It is important to point out that exiting our full investment in AIB in a measured way that will maximise the gain will take a number of years, but I believe that in time we will recoup all of the money we invested in the bank. Under A Programme for a Partnership Government, any future sale of AIB shares contemplated before the end of 2018 would need to be approved by the Government.

Similarly, my officials and I continue to monitor the performance of Permanent TSB and Bank of Ireland and plan for exit opportunities that may arise in the future. However, having just completed a large equity capital markets transaction with the shares in AIB, I have no immediate plans to sell any of the State's shares in either of these banks at this time.

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