First Active shareholders in line for bonanza, but jobs on the line

MORE than 145,000 First Active shareholders will divide several hundred million euro between them in one of the biggest windfalls for small investors in Irish stock market history.

The majority of investors saw the value of their personal shareholding in First Active rise to more than 6,000 euro yesterday as Royal Bank of Scotland bid €6.20 per share for the Irish mortgage lender.

The bid will prove bad news for workers, with job losses inevitable if the bid is accepted. While the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA) said it would fight any redundancies, the Royal Bank of Scotland said jobs losses would be “in the low hundreds”.