BOI raises €2.5bn

Bank of Ireland Group today announced that it has raised €2.5bn of five-year funding through a senior unsecured Government-guaranteed fixed rate transaction.

Today’s trade is the first euro-denominated public benchmark transaction by an Irish issuer under the new government guarantee scheme, the bank said in a statement..

"Today’s successful issue of €2.5bn of five-year long term funding supports the Group’s objective of maintaining a prudent maturity profile of wholesale funding and achieving more conservative balance sheet metrics," the statement said.

The bank said the transaction was oversubscribed with very strong international participation and a final order book of over €3.3bn within four hours.

The final allocation of investors included; 25% from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, 17% from Ireland, 14% from France, 13% from the UK, 7% from the Nordic region, 5% each from the Benelux and Iberia regions, 4% from Italy, 7% from other European countries and 3% from Asia and Middle East.

Some 42% was issued to banks, 32% to Fund Managers, 14% to central banks / official institutions, 11% to insurance companies and 1% to other institutional investors.

Bank of Ireland will pay an annual coupon of 4% for this funding.