State to reduce BoI shareholding

BANK of Ireland said the state will reduce its shareholding to 15.1% after the lender’s rights offering this week, making it the only one of the country’s six largest lenders to escape Government control.

The bank said yesterday that in the interests of dealing with “speculative rumours”, the names of the investors making a significant investment in the bank are led by Fairfax Financial Holdings and include WL Ross, Capital Research (part of the Capital Group), Fidelity Investments and Kennedy Wilson.

The Government, which owned 36% of the bank before the rights offering, agreed on Monday to sell a stake to a group of institutional investors.