State’s Bank of Ireland stake dips below 11%

Stake could fall below 8% threshold by end of year

The State has reduced its stake in Bank of Ireland to below 11 per cent after continuing to drip-feed stock into the market over the past month.

The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), which holds the stake on behalf of the Minister for Finance, dipped below the notifiable threshold on Friday, to 10.96 per cent, according to a stock-exchange disclosure issued on Tuesday.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe announced on June 23rd that he was planning, by year end, to have sold a large part of the Government's then 13.9 per cent stake, a legacy of the bank's crisis-era bailout.

ISIF has been selling down the Bank of Ireland stake at rate of 1 percentage point a month.

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If it continues at the same pace, the holding could be fall below the 8 per cent threshold by the end of the year.

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan is Markets Correspondent of The Irish Times