Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross and Ontario-based Fairfax Financial, two of Bank of Ireland’s (BOI) largest shareholders, began selling a combined 6.4% stake of the lender on 4 March.

The shares at the bank were down 6.9% at €0.34 ($0.47) by 10.25 GMT on the same day, having slipped 7% the day before and after the publication of its full-year results.

Ross and Fairfax, together with other shareholders, invested in BOI in when the share price stood at about €0.10 – the state holds a 14% stake in the bank. The shares have risen significantly since then, jumping over 120% last year and hitting a high of €0.39 per share this year.

BOI said it returned to profit in the first two months of the year and had cut its full-year loss by almost two thirds in 2013 thanks to improved margins and a fall in the number of homeowners in arrears. The shares had risen by 25% in the month before the results.

Ross owned more than 2.9bn BOI shares, or 9.1% of the bank, before the full-year results announcement. Fairfax held 2.8bn shares, or 8.7%.

The pair were the second and third-largest shareholders in the bank behind the government, which also holds more than 99% of rival Allied Irish Banks and permanent tsb.

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Deutsche Bank said the accelerated bookbuilding of the €2.1bn of shares on offer was open to institutional investors only and that Ross had agreed not to sell any more shares for 90 days, while Fairfax CEO Prem Watsa said he had no intention of selling any more of the company’s stake.

"Bank of Ireland has been one of our most successful investments. Because of the significant appreciation we are rebalancing our position. The position had become very significant (in terms of our overall portfolio)," Watsa said.

"We remain strong supporters of (chief executive) Richie Boucher and Bank of Ireland. Bank of Ireland will benefit from the ongoing recovery of Ireland and we have no intention to sell any more of our stake. We are long-term investors."