Donohoe hails €138m sale of Goodbody to AIB as good for the bank, the broker, and seller Fexco

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said the deal required his approval and hailed the acquisition.

Broker Goodbody has been bought by the Government-owned AIB for a gross €138m, in a deal fashioned to preserve the cap on top bankers' pay, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said. 

The acquisition had been delayed as the Government worked on a structure to keep Goodbody, which operates in an industry where employees are paid performance bonuses, at arm's length from the Government's majority-owned AIB, where the pay cap applies. 

With Goodbody holding cash reserves of €56m, AIB will be paying a net €82m for the broker it was forced to sell off for a much smaller amount, as part of its taxpayers' bailout almost 10 years ago. 

Shareholdings

Financial services firm Fexco subsequently emerged as the 51% owner, with a number of Goodbody principals retaining their shareholdings. 

Goodbody chief for over 25 years, Roy Barrett, who was appointed chairman of the FAI last year, along with two other principals are on course to be paid several million from the sale. 

Mr Donohoe said the deal required his approval and hailed the acquisition as being good for seller Fexco, a major employer in Co Kerry, as well as for AIB and Goodbody. 

With other controls, he said that Goodbody would be "ringfenced" and no changes to the Government's policy had been made. 

The deal also means AIB regains Goodbody, where the bank's chief executive Colin Hunt was once chief economist. 

Two bids from Chinese firms in recent years for Goodbody failed to complete after the Chinese government pulled back on investing overseas, it appears.