Irish bond issue secures target of €1.5bn

IRELAND raised €1.5 billion in a bond issue yesterday — the maximum amount it set out to raise — despite weak demand.

Last week the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) said it planned to raise between €1bn and €1.5bn in new bond issues. In a statement yesterday, the agency said it decided to issue a total of €1.5bn, as the total bids for the bond was more than €3.7bn, or 2.5 times the maximum amount on offer in the auction.

An amount of €600 million of the 4% Treasury Bond 2014 was issued where the total bids received were 2.8 times greater than the allocation. The NTMA sold €900m of the 4.5% Treasury Bond 2020.