I propose to take Questions Nos. 314 and 315 together.
I am informed by the National Treasury Management Agency, as Manager of the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF), that the NPRF Commission engaged Goodbody Corporate Finance to provide an independent fair value of the Fund's holdings of shares in Allied Irish Banks and of its preference shares in Bank of Ireland as at 31 December 2011. This was because the preference share investments in both banks are unlisted and because it is difficult to establish a fair value for ordinary shares in Allied Irish Banks given that the Fund holds 99.8% of those shares. Based on the advice of Goodbody Corporate Finance, the Commission valued the Allied Irish Banks ordinary shares at €0.0076 (0.76 cent) per share and valued the preference share investment in Allied Irish Banks at 63.5% of cost. This gives a total value for the Fund's shareholding in Allied Irish Banks of €6.1 billion at end-2011 (€2.2 billion preference shares and €3.9 billion ordinary shares).
The Fund's ordinary share holding in Bank of Ireland was valued at its market price of €0.082 (8.2 cents) per share at 31 December 2011. The holding of preference shares was value at 80.2% of cost, on the advice of Goodbody Corporate Finance. This gives a total value for the Fund's shareholding in Bank of Ireland of €1.9 billion at end-2011 (€1.5 billion preference shares and €0.4 billion ordinary shares). The Minister for Finance invested €2.3 billion in Permanent TSB (formerly Irish Life and Permanent) in July 2011 in return for 36,249,014,972 ordinary shares (at an issue price of €0.06345 per share). The shares are held at their nominal value in the Finance Accounts. The State shareholding in Permanent TSB stands at 99.24%.