Anglo Irish Bank has raised $1 billion through the sale of a Government-backed bond to international investors, writes Una McCaffrey.

The sale, completed yesterday, was Anglo’s first US-denominated bond issue since the bank was nationalised in January. The issue was oversubscribed, with one-third of the investment coming from Asia. All investors in the bond were located outside the Republic.

The debt, due in 2010, was priced at 180 basis points, or 1.8 percentage points above mid-swaps.

Anglo’s issue followed AIB’s successful move on Thursday to raise €1 billion in the first sale of an unsecured, non-guaranteed bond since the introduction of the bank guarantee last September.

Bank of Ireland is expected to follow AIB’s issue with an unsecured bond of its own, marking an improvement in investor sentiment towards Irish financial assets.

Anglo has taken delivery of the final tranche of a €4 billion refinancing from the State. In a statement to the Stock Exchange, Anglo said the Government had provided €172,279,996 in capital.

Anglo reported a loss of €4.1 billion for the six months to the end of March this year.