Bank of Ireland says just over 94.6% of shareholders in the bank have taken up its offer to buy new shares at a discounted price. The bank also says buyers have been found for all of the remaining shares.
The move was part of a €3.4 billion plan by the bank to raise capital in order to meet financial targets laid out by the Financial Regulator.
Existing shareholders were given the option of buying three shares at 55 cent for every two shares they already owned.
The figure includes shares taken up by the National Pensions Reserve Fund on behalf of the State, which will be left with a 36% stake. That involved the conversion of €627m worth of preference shares into units of ordinary shares.
The results of the rights issue meant the underwriters of the share offering were left with just over 168.5 million shares. The bank said later that buyers had been found for all of these shares at a price of 75 cent.
Kevin McConnell, head of research at Bloxham Stockbrokers, told RTE radio the take-up was very strong, especially in light of the difficult market conditions recently.
He said the rump of 168.5 million shares was likely to be placed in the market today, and he expected it to be cleared 'fairly quickly'. Mr McConnell said BoI was now in a much stronger financial position, and there was now at least one big player in the Irish financial system fully capitalised.
Shares in the bank closed 1.9% higher at 77 cent in Dublin this evening.
