AIB flotation could net €3.4bn for State

The flotation of AIB has proved to be more lucrative for the Government than had been thought earlier in the week, with shares rising up to 7% as an almost 29% stake of the bank was floated at €4.40 per share.

Having said a minimum of 25% of its stake would be sold off, an additional 3.7% was sold, netting an extra €400m on top of the €3bn forecast in recent days. The bank is valued at €12bn. In February, the National Treasury Management Agency valued AIB at €11.3bn, although it had an estimated value of €12.2bn at the end of 2015.

At the beginning of last week, when the Government published its initial prospectus for the partial AIB float, its guided share price range, of €3.90 to €4.90 per share, estimated AIB’s market value at €10.6bn to €13.3bn, although the higher end of that range was viewed as being aspirational.