Next government will decide on AIB shares

A decision on whether shares in AIB will be offered to individuals as part of a stock market flotation next year won't be made until a new government is in place, sources have indicated to The Irish Times.

This follows comments on Tuesday by AIB's chief financial officer Mark Bourke suggesting that there could be a retail offering as part of its planned IPO next year.

"It is really important that afterward, if it does well, that people can say 'I did have access"' to buy shares, Mr Bourke told Bloomberg. He said the shares to retail investors would probably be sold through brokers.

The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said last week that he was leaning towards an autumn IPO of AIB, with 25 per cent of the State's holding likely to be offered for sale, with the bank having its main listing in London.

It is understood that any retail offering would be open to all as opposed to being just offered to existing small shareholders, most of whom had their investments wiped out following the State’s €20.8 billion bailout of AIB after the 2008 crash. Taxpayers currently own 99.8 per cent of the bank, which has retained a listing on the junior ESM market in Dublin.

Stakes diluted

Earlier this year,

Permanent TSB

offered existing shareholders the opportunity to buy stock as part of its IPO to avoid them having their stakes diluted. However, that listing involved the issuance of new shares by the bank while AIB’s is simply a case of the State selling some of its holding.

Very few PTSB shareholders took up the offer while a quarter of the bank was sold to institutional investors.

Mr Bourke also said AIB has no plans to renegotiate its €500,000 executive pay cap with the Government, in spite of its stock market plans for next year.