MANAGEMENT and staff at Anglo Irish Bank own a stake in the company worth ?387m, even after the share sales by top executives last week.

Finance director Willie McAteer confirmed that the total staff holding represents 9% of the company's issued share capital. Last week chief executive Sean Fitzpatrick, outgoing head of risk management Peter Killen and UK managing director John Rowan sold three million shares between them for a total consideration of more than ?39m.

The bank's board of directors still hold 1.7% of the company between them, with the remainder of the 9% in the hands of the 1,000 staff at the Irish bank, which also has operations in the UK and the US.

Between staff bonuses, share options granted to management and the companies employee share option scheme, it is likely that their stake in the business will increase further over the coming years.

There were over 6,000,000 share options outstanding when the company published its 2003 annual report last September. The shares were trading at ?13.09 when the market closed in Dublin on Friday.