NTMA sells €1bn of bonds

Ireland took another step back into the debt markets as the National Treasury Management Agency sold €1 billion of amortising bonds.

The bonds have maturity dates ranging from 15 years to 35 years, and sold at an average yield of 5.91 per cent.

Some €330.95 million of the 35-year bond was sold at a yield of 5.92 per cent. The 30-year bond sold €322.9 million, while securities with a 25-year maturity sold €298.35 million.

The remainder was split between 20-year bond at a yield of 5.82 per cent, and the 15-year maturity at 5.72 per cent.

The bonds were sold at a tap issue, which allows the NTMA to set the price and investors then indicate how much of the bonds they would like to buy. This is instead of the usual auction process.

It’s the first time the NTMA has offered amortising bonds to the market. The securities make equal annual payments over their lifetime, which includes a partial principal repayment and a payment of interest. The NTMA said they were designed to meet the needs of the Irish pensions industry.

NTMA chief executive John Corrigan said the agency was pleased with the results.

"The success of today's transaction demonstrates the willingness of domestic investors to increase their holdings of Irish Government debt," he said. "We expect to be in a position to issue further amounts of amortising bonds as pension fund trustees complete their funding plans in line with the funding standard announced by the Pensions Board on June 7th 2012."

He said the transaction, along with other measures from the agency, had reduced the "funding cliff" €11.9 billion that was due to the January 2014 bond maturity by 80 per cent to just under €2.4 billion.