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.

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.

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Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson

Colin Gleeson is an Irish Times reporter