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NTMA sell E500m short-term Irish bonds

Thursday, October 18 11:53:48

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) today successfully sold E500m worth of short terms Treasury Bills with a coupon of 0.7pc.

The Agency said the auction received bids which totalled E1.8 billion, more than three times the amount on offer.

The bills were sold at an annualised yield of 0.7 per cent and have a maturity of three months.

The rate was the same as when similar securities were sold last month.

Owen Callan Senior Dealer at Danske Markets said today's issuance brings to E14.34 billion total issuance from the NTMA this year and provides the Agency with an enormous cash buffer of approximately E25 billion, when coupled its commercial paper programme. "This effectively prefunds most of the January 2014 bond redemption - which had previously been considered a huge hurdle for Ireland to overcome."

"The bulk of today’s buying was from international, mainly continental European investors – this will certainly be seen as a welcome boost in the context of Ireland's position at the EU summit today, and will further highlight our progress particularly when compared with periphery Member States," he said.

"In terms of the remainder of the year, we suggest it is now timely for the NTMA to investigate longer maturities in the T-Bill programme, with a 6 and 9 month issuance before year end highly plausible."