NTMA to resume regular bond auctions

NTMA to raise €15bn as bond auctions resume

The NTMA will raise up to €15bn over the next year as it resumes regular and pre-announced bond auctions.

Moreover, in a separate announcement, the agency said that it had cancelled a Floating Rate Treasury Bond due to mature on June 18, 2038.

This bond was issued to replace the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation promissory notes, which were scrapped in February 2013.

Following this cancellation the total nominal outstanding for this bond will decline to €1.5bn.

The NTMA said it would announce at the beginning of every quarter its auction plans for the three-month period.

The Government has not held regular bond auctions since before the country was forced into an EU/IMF bailout in November 2010.

The NTMA also said it intends to hold at least one syndicated bond deal during the year.

“Subject to market conditions, the NTMA may also offer investors the opportunity of switching some of their holdings of the 4.60% treasury bond of April 2016 into longer dated bonds,” it added.

The National Treasury Management Agency will continue to issue treasury bills during 2015 and further details will be contained in the quarterly announcements.

The Government is fully pre-funded up to the end of 2015 and recently began the early repayment of roughly €18bn of International Monetary Fund bailout loans.

It is not known whether it intends to issue more long-dated bonds.

On November 4 it raised €3.75bn from a 15-year benchmark bond.