NTMA raises €500 million in debt auction

Ireland sold €500 million of Treasury Bills in an auction this morning, the National Treasury Management Agency said.

The auction of the short-term debt, which have a maturity of three months, reached its target, the NTMA said. Total bids received amounted to €1.67 billion, about 3.3 times the amount of offer.

The bills were sold at an annualised yield of 0.1 per cent.

Strategist at Danske Bank Markets Owen Callan said the auction was an important way of interacting with international investors as the country sought to exit bailout in the coming months.

“It also forms part of the NTMA’s plans to continue to build up the T-bill programme next year and offer Ireland cheap access to large amounts of short term financing,” he said.

The NTMA is expected to return to monthly issuance of longer term debt in the fourth quarter.

“This more regular supply of liquidity should allow for more predictable and consistent market depth and bid/offer spreads in the Irish government bond market, creating better trading conditions for investors and encouraging them to increase their participation in it,” Mr Callan said. “ Today’s auction results underscore the continued demand for Irish government securities from international investors that we have seen over the course of 2013, and so bodes well for these monthly auctions when they do begin again.”