AIB’s Pym and Byrne start to buy shares in newly-floated bank

Directors acquire shares at up to €4.945, well above initial public offering price of €4.50

AIB's chairman Richard Pym, and chief executive Bernard Byrne, have begun to buy shares in the lender, a little over a month after its flotation on the main Irish and London stock exchanges.

Mr Pym acquired €9,420 worth of shares while Mr Byrne spent €9,890 on stock, the company said in a stock exchange filing in Monday. The bank's senior independent director, Catherine Woods, spent €118,320 on shares.

The Irish Times reported in the middle of last month that a number of AIB directors planned to start buying stock in the bank after the flotation, having agreed not to participate in the initial share sale to avoid any perceived conflicts of interest.

IPO

The three directors acquired shares at up to €4.945 each, well above the €4.50 at which the stock was priced on June 23rd under the initial public offering.

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Mr Byrne would be expected by institutional fund managers who bought into the IPO to add to his position over time.

This is especially the case as AIB warned in an IPO document published last month that an ongoing ban on bonuses and share incentives for executives, as a result of its bailout, restricts it from “aligning” their interests with investors.

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan is Markets Correspondent of The Irish Times