LIAM CARROLL'S 29.3 per cent stake in Irish Continental Group was sold into the market yesterday by Goodbody Stockbrokers at €12.20 a share.

This is roughly half the price Mr Carroll paid ICG in 2007 when the ferry company was the subject of a high-profile takeover battle.

This resulted in AIB taking a hit of about €88 million on the loan advanced to South Morston Investments to buy the ICG stock two years ago.

South Morston was an investment vehicle controlled by Mr Carroll and his wife Róisín.

It is one of a number of Mr Carroll's companies that has been placed into liquidation following court proceedings taken by Dutch-owned ACCBank.

It is understood that more than 30 institutions in Ireland and Britain bought the near 7.2 million ICG shares that were traded yesterday by Goodbody.

This netted AIB about €88 million, roughly half the amount the bank loaned Mr Carroll to purchase the ICG shares.

Details of the share placing by Goodbody, a subsidiary of AIB, were revealed by The Irish Times yesterday.

Goodbody had sounded out institutions last week, indicating a price of €12 each for the shares.

The €12.20 price achieved was a 9 per cent discount to ICG's share price in Dublin, which closed down nearly 1.5 per cent yesterday at €13.20.

A number of market analysts were surprised by the timing of the sale and the level at which the shares were pitched.

While its revenues and profits have declined this year, ICG is a highly cash-generative company that is expected to have no net debt by 2011.

This follows a major restructuring of the ferry business in recent years.

Irish Continental Group also offers one of the best dividend yields in the Irish market at 7.5 per cent. NCB Stockbrokers recently set a target of €17 for the ferry operator.

Mr Carroll was ICG's biggest shareholder. He is believed to have paid about €176 million to buy his stake in the company at a time when it was the subject of two offers.

His stakebuilding was seen as a play on ICG's 33-acre site in Dublin Port at a time when property prices were near their peak and when there was speculation that the port could be relocated up the east coast to a planned new facility at Bremore in north Co Dublin.

Mr Carroll bought the shares for more than €24 each.

ICG has been the subject of offers from chief executive Éamonn Rothwell and the Philip Lynch-led Moonduster consortium, which comprises One Fifty One and the Cork-based Doyle Shipping Group.

A proposed joint bid by Mr Rothwell, who owns 16 per cent, and Moonduster, which controls 25 per cent, collapsed in April due to difficulties in securing funding. Ironically, AIB was one of the banks being tapped for funds at the time.

The Irish Takeover Panel precluded the two groups from making another bid for 12 months.

The sale of Mr Carroll's holding might now break the logjam and provide an opportunity for either Mr Rothwell or Moonduster to try and take ICG private some time next year.

ICG revenues declined to €197 million in the nine months to the end of September, from €265.5 million a year earlier.

Its operating profit for the period was €24.1 million compared to €37.5 million in 2008.

The ferry operator's ebitda - earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation - fell by 25 per cent to €41.7 million.