NTMA plans three debt auctions in first quarter of 2018

Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) is planning three debt auctions in the first quarter of this year, it said on Monday.

Following the sale of €4 billion of bonds last Wednesday, the NTMA announced plans for two bond auctions and one treasury bill auction to take place in February and March, subject to market conditions. The bonds sold on Wednesday will mature in 10 years’ time and carried an interest rate of 0.9 per cent.

While the recent bond sale attracted a positive interest rate for investors, the treasury bills have been sold with negative yields in the past year. The most recent treasury bill auction in December for €500 million had a yield of minus 0.52 per cent. That bill will mature in December of this year. That negative yield represented a worsening return for investors on the 12-month treasury bill sale in March for €500 million in debt which had a yield of minus 0.43 per cent.

Ireland was the first European sovereign to tap the bond markets in 2018, with last week's sale with a maturity debt profile referred to as "one of the strongest in Europe" by Ryan McGrath, head of fixed-income strategy at Cantor Fitzgerald in Dublin.