NTMA raises €6 billion from sale of new 7-year benchmark bond
7 April 2020 - The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has today raised €6 billion through the syndicated sale of a new 7-year benchmark Treasury Bond maturing in May 2027. The funds were raised at a yield of 0.242%.
There was strong demand from a broad and diversified investor base for today's transaction. The total order book of over €33 billion included in excess of 250 individual accounts.
In terms of geographic distribution, 84% of the final allocation was taken up by overseas investors, including the U.K. (25%), Nordics (13%), France (12%), Germany (7%), US (6%), Spain (6%), Italy (5%), and Other Europe (8%), with the rest spread across other regions.
The main investor categories were asset managers (36%) and banks & intermediaries (36%), followed by pension & insurance (10%), central banks and official institutions (10%) and hedge funds (8%).
Conor O’Kelly, NTMA Chief Executive, said:
“Today’s transaction demonstrates the ongoing strong demand among investors for Irish sovereign debt.
This demand highlights the progress Ireland has made in recent years to improve its sovereign credit rating and its debt sustainability. The accommodative stance of the ECB and in particular its newly announced PEPP program has helped keep interest rates low and this has been supportive for European sovereigns issuers. While the economic challenges arising from Covid-19 are significant, Ireland is well positioned to meet any additional borrowing requirements”.
The original version of this press release was subsequently updated to include the press release issued by the joint lead managers for the transaction termsheet.