Bank of Ireland raises €1bn in second fundraising

BANK OF Ireland has raised €1 billion in funding over a 3½ year period in what is the bank’s second successful fundraising this month.

The funds, which were raised via a senior unsecured fixed-rate bond issue, mature after the end of the Government’s bank guarantee.

It follows the bank’s five-year covered bond issue earlier in September, which was the first step in the reopening of the non-guaranteed wholesale funding market for Irish bond issuers.

AIB also successfully raised €1 billion in an unsecured, non-guaranteed bond last week, marking an improvement in investor sentiment toward Irish financial assets.

Bank of Ireland said its trade yesterday was “another important step towards the normalisation of funding conditions” for the group.

The unsecured debt issue was oversubscribed, with a final order book of more than €2.5 billion, the bank added.

Some 92 per cent of orders came from outside Ireland, with more than 220 investors from 26 countries participating in the transaction. Some 31 per cent of the final allocation of investors came from Germany or Austria.

“Today’s trade is a further significant vote of confidence by international bond investors in Bank of Ireland, and the series of supportive measures enacted by the Irish State to support the Irish banking system,” the bank said.

The bank was the most heavily traded stock on the Iseq index yesterday, with more than 17 million shares exchanging hands in Dublin. Its share price rose 6 per cent to close at €3.27 on the back of news of the bond issue.