Shareholders back AIB nationalisation despite protest

THE nationalisation of AIB has been approved by the bank’s shareholders, despite opposition from the floor at its EGM in Dublin yesterday.

The move — which ultimately sees the Government stump up around €12.6 billion of AIB’s total post-March capital requirement of €14.8bn (made up of AIB’s €13.3bn target and the €1.5bn needed by the EBS Building Society, which is now part of the AIB group) — will result in the state having a 99.8% share of what is being promoted as one of the two pillars of the new Irish banking landscape.

Yesterday’s vote centred around the state buying further equity in the bank for €5bn, the issue of contingency capital of €1.6bn for potential future needs, the raising of around €2bn through the ‘burning’ of junior bondholders and €6.1bn in a further Government injection to meet targets.