State holding in BoI drops to 15%

THE state’s holding in Bank of Ireland has dropped to just over 15% after a billion euro investment by a Canadian investment firm.

Fairfax Financial Holding has reduced the Government-managed stake from 36% after buying up 10.51 billion shares at 10 cent each. Finance Minister Michael Noonan said it was a successful deal.

“The commitment by a number of significant private sector investors to invest side-by-side with the state’s retained holding, without any form of additional risk sharing by the state, reaffirms the Government’s banking policy,” Mr Noonan said. “It further underlines how we are successfully breaking the link between bank risk and the sovereign.”