Long-suffering small investors in Bank of Ireland can finally look forward to closing the door on a miserable investment after shareholders voted at the recent annual general meeting to approve plans for an “odd-lot” offer.The company’s shares are trading at around €17.37 these days. That is an improvement over recent years. They were trading at €11.94 a year ago when the bank first held out the prospect of an odd-lot offer and as little at €1.35 in April 2020.But it is all a far cry from the €18.65 at which they traded at their pre-crash peak. Since then, shareholders have been diluted through the bailout and have been through a share consolidation in 2017 that gave them just one share for every 30 they previously owned.The offer will see the bank offer to buy back shares from anyone who holds fewer than 30 shares in the lender at a 5 per cent premium to the price in the market at the time the offer goes live. That will be sometime over the next 18 months.That means anyone who held 900 or fewer shares in early 2017 will be eligible.The advantage for the shareholders – apart from the 5 per cent premium – is that they avoid hefty stockbroker charges that would eat dramatically into the remaining value of these shareholdings, which range in value from around €17.40 to €520 at current prices.It is not before time. Bank of Ireland’s main domestic rivals – AIB and PTSB – moved in 2024 to release tens of thousands of Celtic Tiger-era and long-term investors from the purgatory of holdings that had been decimated by the government bailout of lenders after the financial crash.As recently as this time last year, Bank of Ireland chief executive, Myles O’Grady said the bank was aware of the issue of locked-in shareholders “but, to be frank, we didn’t think it was as acute an issue as other banks”.Everything is relative and, to be fair to him, O’Grady was absolutely correct that Bank of Ireland investors had not fared as badly as their peers in AIB and PTSB. But that is scant consolation to a generation of investors whose holdings now are worth just a small fraction – just over 3 per cent – of their peak value.Bank of Ireland says that about 26,000 investors hold 30 or fewer shares in the bank – of which roughly 90 per cent hold between 20 and 30 shares. They account for 35 per cent of all shareholders by number but together the shares they hold amount to just 0.03 per cent of the bank’s issued share capital.As the bank itself points out, disproportionate dealing and other costs disadvantage such small shareholders if they are looking to sell their shares or even cash dividend cheques.It also suspects that a number of the shareholders involved are “inactive” – either because they don’t realise they have any shares still in the bank, are not aware that their holdings have any value or have died without leaving information for executors about the existence of their holdings. A further issue is people who have moved address and simply lost touch with their investment.How does the bank figure that? Well unclaimed dividend cheques for one, or unopened annual reports.But Bank of Ireland is also aware that there is scope for the bank to save money on the recurring costs of keeping in touch with such a large number of shareholders.This is a one-off offer so shareholders need to stay alert to communications from the bank over the next while until the odd-lot buyback is activated. If you have not heard from the bank recently for any reason, get in touch with their investor relations department at investor.relations@boi.com or their share registrar, Computershare, at www.computershare.com/ie/contact-us or at 01 2475414.So how will it work?At some point between now and November 2027, the bank will trigger the odd-lot offer that was approved at last week’s AGM. The offer will be open to any shareholders living in Ireland or Britain who, at April 16th of this year, were registered as having 30 or fewer shares in the bank.If they buy more shares between that date and when the offer is formally announced, bringing their holding above 30 shares, they will no longer be eligible. The same is true for anyone who comes into a holding of 30 or fewer shares between April of this year and the formal offer – by inheritance perhaps or by selling down part of their shareholdings.Anyone who holds their shares through Euroclear Bank or Crest depositary interests will also be excluded.The bank will, at that time, publish the price at which they are buying back the shares. It will be the average price the shares have traded at over the five days before the offer, plus a 5 per cent premium to that price.Most importantly for shareholders, they will not have to worry about stockbroker charges – or indeed any charges – at all. The bank says the reason it chose 30 shares as a cut-off is that “at the current share price [€17.37 as of Thursday], a disposal of a holding of 30 ordinary shares or less would be largely absorbed by costs if sold through a broker”. There is no obligation on shareholders to sell into the offer although it makes sense unless they have strong reasons to wish to retain such a small shareholding. However, critically, if shareholders do not engage at all with the bank, their shares will be bought out under the odd-lot offer by default.So if you do want to hold on to your shares, you will need to engage with this process, even if you have ignored every communication from the bank over the past decade. You will need to fill in an opt-out form that will be available at that time.It is also worth noting this is an all-or-nothing arrangement. If you are eligible, you cannot choose to sell just part of your shareholding. if, for some reason, you try to opt out of selling some of your shares on that form, the bank will assume you are selling everything. For those who do want to sell, you will actually need to do nothing as the shares will be acquired by default unless you indicate otherwise.While it may be a relief to close the door on their investment, it will come at a significant cost. Based on yesterday’s share price of €17.37, an odd lot offer of €18.28 would yield up to €547. At their peak, 30 of Bank of Ireland’s current shares would have been 900 shares, each worth €18.65, a total value of €16,785. That’s a sobering markdown on the investment for shareholders who have been locked into the bank for the past almost 20 years.Cheques will be sent out following any sale but those shareholders who have failed to engage at all in recent years should know that any proceeds unclaimed will be donated to charity – but not for 12 years. You can contact us at OnTheMoney@irishtimes.com with personal finance questions you would like to see us address. If you missed last week’s newsletter, you can read it here.