Bank of Ireland shares continued to sink this morning and at 9.30am were trading at €0.989. On Monday last the government (or more specifically the National Pension Reserve Fund) received 184,394,378 ordinary shares in Bank of Ireland representing the amount of the 2010 preference share dividend divided by the average share price in the 30 trading days prior to and including 19 February 2010. Of course this was in lieu of a cash dividend from BoI because the EU has not yet approved the government’s restructuring and financing plans for Irish banks. I seem to recall that in December 2008 we were sold the €3.5bn purchase of BoI 8% preference shares on the basis that the return was a very healthy one for the Irish taxpayer. Well today our divident of 184.4m shares are worth €182bn, we have a significant shareholding in the bank and I do not think people generally expected us to be in this position.
Let us hope that NAMA yields more desirable results.
NAMA Wine Lake 