Ireland's NTMA taps....>

IRELAND BOND AUCTION PREVIEW: Ireland's NTMA taps E1.0-1.25bln of Irish 1%

May-26 and Irish 2% Feb-45. 

- BACKGROUND: Time to break out the Guinness, this will be the last Irish

auction of the year. Cantors Dublin point out that with the same combination of

bonds in June, the NTMA pushed 70% of issuance to the 2026 and 30% to the 2045.

The ECB PSPP is trailing well behind the Irish capital key in its buying so

there is additional secondary market support for these bonds.

- RV/HISTORY: There is no escaping that Irish debt has tightened aggressively to

core and other semi core markets but the threat to Irish debt mainly comes from

US tax policy and Brexit negotiations, which take a back seat to a large flow

toward Irish debt. The absolute yield level for the 2045 is the lowest since

January and is an all-time low for the 2026. The last time the May-26 was

issued, there was a yield of 0.69% (it is 0.53% today) and the average cover in

2017 is 2.02x. For the 2045, the yield was 1.95% ( it is 1.69% today) and the

average cover in 2017 is 2.11x. 

- RESULTS: The auction closes at 1000BST with results around 15 minutes later.