{"id":155607,"date":"2025-10-31T16:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/155607\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T16:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:34:08","slug":"state-exits-aib-fully-by-selling-back-stock-warrants-to-bank-for-e390m-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/155607\/","title":{"rendered":"State exits AIB fully by selling back stock warrants to bank for \u20ac390m \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

AIB<\/a> said it has spent \u20ac390 million buying back stock warrants that the State continued to hold in the bank after selling its remaining shares in the lender during the summer. <\/p>\n

The deal brings the total that the State has recovered from the bank\u2019s \u20ac20.8 billion crisis-era bailout to almost \u20ac20.2 billion \u2013 leaving a shortfall of a little over \u20ac600 million. <\/p>\n

AIB handed the warrants to Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, at the time of the bank\u2019s initial public offering (IPO) in 2017, giving the State the right to buy back a stake of up to 9.99 per cent in the bank if its shares doubled in value in the space of a decade from its \u20ac4.40 IPO price. <\/p>\n

They were designed to avoid officials being embarrassed in the event of a surge in AIB\u2019s share price after the IPO.<\/p>\n

While the warrants were \u201cout of the money\u201d for much of that period, they reached breakeven point in February as the stock soared following better-than-expected annual results at AIB, which is led by chief executive Colin Hunt. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Donohoe delayed approving sale of State\u2019s final shares in AIBOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe completion of this warrants cancellation transaction with AIB is a very important step for both the company and the State,\u201d Mr Donohoe said in a statement on Friday. \u201cIt is the final transaction with AIB and results in a further \u20ac390 million recovered from our investment in the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

The price of the deal was \u20ac90 million higher that what AIB had estimated earlier this year. Diarmaid Sheridan, an analyst with Davy, said this reflected the subsequent increase in AIB\u2019s share price. The bank\u2019s stock has jumped almost 50 per cent so far this year. <\/p>\n

The transaction will reduce AIB\u2019s common equity Tier 1 capital ratio \u2013 a key measure of a bank\u2019s ability to withstand a shock loss \u2013 from 16.4 per cent, as of the end of June, to 15.7 per cent. Still, it remains well above AIB\u2019s target for a ratio in excess of 14 per cent. <\/p>\n

\u201cAIB retains material surplus capital and continues to generate attractive levels of organic capital on an ongoing basis [from retained profits],\u201d said Mr Sheridan. <\/p>\n

The proceeds from this transaction will be held within the exchequer and will ultimately be used to benefit the State, he said. <\/p>\n

A total of \u20ac29.4 billion was invested in AIB, Bank of Ireland and PTSB<\/a> over the period from 2009 to 2011. To date, about \u20ac29.7 billion has been recovered in cash by way of share and bailout bond disposals, investment income, bank guarantee fees and the AIB warrants transaction.<\/p>\n

The remaining 57 per cent stake in PTSB is currently valued at about \u20ac900 million after shares in the bank jumped 23.4 per cent on Thursday on news that the lender had put itself up for sale. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AIB said it has spent \u20ac390 million buying back stock warrants that the State continued to hold in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[624,79,18,19,17,46,37657],"class_list":{"0":"post-155607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aib","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-paschal-donohoe","14":"tag-ptsb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115469750409425130","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}