NTMA to auction €500m of treasury bills on Thursday

State’s debt agency aiming to raise between €14bn and €18bn of long-term debt this year

Conor O’Kelly, chief executive of the NTMA. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times
Conor O’Kelly, chief executive of the NTMA. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times

The State’s debt agency is to auction €500 million of short term notes, known as treasury bills, on Thursday.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) will offer the bills with a twelve month maturity.

The auction will be conducted on the Bloomberg Auction System and is confined to recognised primary dealers and eligible counterparties. A non-competitive auction will immediately follow the competitive auction.

The NTMA sold €1.25 billion in bonds in an auction last month. The debt sale included a 1.1 per cent treasury bond maturing in 2029, which had a yield of 0.846 per cent, and a 1.7 per cent treasury bond due to mature in 2037, with a yield of 1.414 per cent.

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Both bonds were oversubscribed with the 2029 bond covered 2.2 times after receiving bids for a total of €2.13 billion of the debt. There were offers of €839 million for the €300 million of debt available in the 2037 bond, meaning it was 2.8 times oversubscribed.

The NTMA is aiming to raise between €14 billion and €18 billion of long-term debt in capital markets this year as it continues its practice of raising money ahead of schedule to meet bond maturities.

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson is an Irish Times reporter