EFSF plans to issue three-year bonds

EUROPE’S bailout fund plans to raise €3 billion from a sale of three-year bonds after Standard & Poor’s said in December it may lose its top credit rating — the money is earmarked for Ireland and Portugal.

The European Financial Stability Facility hired Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale to manage the deal, which is the fund’s first bond of this maturity and will help finance the bailouts of Ireland and Portugal, it said in an emailed statement.

The sale will follow the EFSF’s first bills auction last month and a €3bn issue of February 2022 bonds on November 7, 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.