NTMA will use bond auction to ease country’s 2016 funding requirements

Ireland will seek to ease its funding requirements for 2016 by offering investors the chance to swap a bond due for repayment in two years time with longer-dated debt.

Ireland, which emerged from an EU/IMF bailout last year, is fully funded for 2014 and said it will also hold a bond auction next week having already raised over 70% of the €8bn earmarked to fully pre-fund for 2015.

The Nation Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) said it will offer buyback and switch terms to holders of its April 2016 bond “in the near future”. That would cut the €10bn of bonds scheduled to be redeemed that year versus €7bn outstanding in 2017.