The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) hired banks on Wednesday to manage the sale of €3 billion of bonds, after Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and a group of Independent TDs agreed to form the next government.
The bonds, which are due to mature in 30 years’ time, are expected to be priced on Thursday, according to market sources.
Danske Bank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, AIB’s Goodbody Stockbrokers unit, HSBC and JP Morgan will manage the so-called syndicated bond deal.
The deal was announced as the would-be coalition partners prepared to publish their programme for government, following weeks of negotiations after a general election at the end of November.
Analysts expect that the NTMA will issue toward the lower end of its 2025 bond-sales target of between €6 billion and €10 billion.
The Department of Finance forecasts the general government surplus will amount to €9.7 billion this year, following on from an estimated record €23.7 billion out-turn for 2024. About €14 billion of existing government debt, including bonds and bailout-era loans from the EU, are due for redemption in each of the next two years.
The NTMA, led by chief executive Frank O’Connor, sold just €6 billion of bonds in 2024, at the bottom end of its targeted range, and slightly below the figure of about €7 billion raised in each of the two previous years. Recent issuance has been well below the average of more than €18 billion a year between 2017 and 2021, skewed by large deals during the Covid-19 crisis as the government funded support for households and businesses.
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