Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Davy and Deutsche Bank were appointed as ‘Global Coordinators’ to assist in a potential future Initial Public Offering (IPO) of AIB, the Department of Finance announced on Friday.

The appointments were made following a mini tender competition involving all of the members of Lot 3 of the Department’s Capital Markets Distribution panel. This panel was constituted following an open procurement procedure in October 2014 and contains a total of 12 Irish and International firms. The firms selected have significant knowledge and experience of large scale equity capital market transactions both in Ireland and across Europe and will be appointed for a period of 18 months.

Following these appointments both the Department of Finance, along with its independent financial advisor, Rothschild, and AIB will work closely with the Global Coordinators to continue preparations for a future sale of some of the State’s shareholding in AIB. AIB is advised by Morgan Stanley and Goodbody stockbrokers.

The appointment of Global Coordinators does not signal any intention or obligation for the Minister for Finance to proceed with an IPO within any particular timeframe and any decision to proceed with a transaction will be subject to Government approval and market conditions. A process to select a number of other banks for the selling syndicate will also take place at a future date yet to be determined.

“The appointment of these Global Coordinators is an important step in preparations for the future sale of part of the State’s shareholding in AIB,” Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said. “There remains no fixed timetable for any sale at this time as it will depend on market conditions amongst other things. These appointments will ensure that the State has the option to sell some of the State’s shareholding in AIB during 2017 or indeed early 2018 as provided for in the Programme for a Partnership Government.”

AIB received an initial bailout of €3.5 billion by the Irish government in 2009. According to the Department of Finance, the state’s total investment in AIB currently stands at about €20.7 billion.

In early 2015 Goldman Sachs International and William Fry were appointed to provide Financial and Legal advice to the Department on reconfiguring AIB’s capital structure.