The State has reduced its stake in Bank of Ireland to below 9 per cent after continuing to drip-feed stock into the market over the past month.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe announced in June that the Government would sell much of its 13.9 per cent stake in Bank of Ireland – held through the Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) – this year.
ISIF has been selling down the stake at a rate of one percentage point of its holding a month.
A stock exchange announcement on Thursday said the State had cut its holding in the bank to 8.99 per cent as of Tuesday from 10.96 per cent on October 22nd.
Mr Donohoe said on November 5th that he was extending the timeframe for selling down Bank of Ireland shares on to the market from early January to May 20th, as he seeks to accelerate the lender’s full return to private ownership.
Welcoming the move at the time, Bank of Ireland chief executive Francesca McDonagh said she expected the lender to return to full private ownership next year, making it the first to do so among the State’s three surviving bailed-out banks.
