US billionaire Wilbur Ross will sell his entire holding in Bank of Ireland three years after his pioneering investment kept the struggling bank out of state hands, but he said he remained confident about its prospects.
Mr Ross, whose fund specialises in distressed assets, was among a group of North American investors who bought a 35 percent stake only months after Ireland signed up to an EU/IMF bailout.
He is set to make a healthy profit on the deal, with two sources familiar with the matter saying the shares would be priced at between 26 and 27.5 cents each, compared with the 10 cents the bank was trading at when he bought the stake.
This is “definitely not a negative comment on BoI or Ireland... This has been a terrific investment for us and our investors,” Mr Ross said.
“With the continued appreciation of our bank holdings, we were getting so concentrated in banking that we had to cut back,” he said.
In particular, he said European rules that limit the number of bank boards investors can sit on contributed to the decision.
Fellow investor Prem Watsa, who was also part of the 2011 consortium and who sold shares with Mr Ross in March, said Mr Ross's decision was "entirely unrelated to the business" and pledged to hold his own 5.8 percent stake for the long term.
“Bank of Ireland and Ireland generally are only beginning to see a return to their future potential,” Mr Watsa said.
The March sale, which included a ban on further share sales for 90 days, cut Ross’s stake to 5.5 per cent from around 9 per cent. The Irish government remains the largest shareholder with 14 per cent.
The sale will increase the free float for the bank, which is one of the few large listed Irish companies that do most of their business in the domestic market.
