Ireland, NatWest sell 10% of lender Permanent TSB

LONDON/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's Finance Ministry and Britain's NatWest Group said on Friday they had jointly sold 54.6 million shares in Permanent TSB representing 10% of the Irish bank's share capital.

The shareholders will receive close to 110.5 million euros ($121.64 million) from the accelerated share placement, or 55.2 million euros each. They had originally set out to sell a combined 6% of the Irish bank.

The Irish state will continue to hold 57.4% of PTSB while NatWest will retain a 11.7% stake.

The deal will "help improve liquidity and interest in the bank as we continue preparations for a wider disposal programme in the coming years," Irish Finance Minister Michael McGrath said in a statement.

PTSB, the smallest of the three domestically owned banks that survived Ireland's financial crash a decade ago, was effectively nationalised in 2011.

The Irish government cut its 99.2% shareholding to 75% in a share offer in 2015 but had not sold any shares in the bank since.

NatWest took a near 17% share in the bank as part of PTSB's recent acquisition of around 7.6 billion euros ($8.37 billion) of loans and assets from NatWest's Irish unit Ulster Bank, which is exiting the Irish market. That diluted the Irish government's holding to 62%.

($1 = 0.9084 euros)

(Reporting by Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro in London and Conor Humpries and Graham Fahy in Dublin; editing by Jason Neely)