Irish Nationwide building society has started the process of demutualisation, and is expected to be on the market in the next couple of months. The society, which is viewing a trade sale to another institution, hopes for the sale process to be completed by the end of the year. The business is intended to be sold as a whole, with no intention of breaking up its commercial and home loan entities.

Vendors due diligence is underway in conjunction with a complete audit, and will be completed in the coming weeks. This should speed up the selling process by giving potential buyers a complete overview of the business. Financial advisers will be appointed in late April, after the group’s AGM. 

The demutualisation and possible sell-off should yield a healthy windfall to around 125,000 members, which Chief Executive Michael Fingleton said would disappoint should it fall below €10k.

Irish Nationwide has been in business for 133 years, and now has 75% of its lending spread across the commercial sector with a 50/50 split of that between Ireland and Britain. It lent €5bn in 2006, and the group’s total assets stand at €14bn. The company has been valued at around €1.5bn in the past, but there has been no comment on what it could make on the open market.