AIB sale needs to spark wider debate on Irish banks

Rightly or wrongly Minister Noonan has had a bit of a thing about returning AIB to private hands for some time and has decided the best way to get back the almost €21bn taxpayers injected into the lender was through a shares sale. His plans were thwarted last year when bank shares collapsed amid fears about the Italian banks’ loans books and the financial health of European banking giant Deutsche Bank.
The process of selling 25% of AIB in an initial public offering (IPO) will be completed in the next four weeks, if not earlier. That’s because the appetite of investors participating in the many “non-deal roadshows” conducted by AIB and the Government around the world this year has been strong. There is no doubt, as the jargon goes, the bank is more than IPO-ready. It is what its Government owners and its AIB managers have worked towards since the bank turned its first profit over two years ago following the crash. That does not mean the sales process is guaranteed a smooth market ride. Political events could yet cause turbulence for markets.