Bank of Ireland raises €500 million of 3 year unguaranteed senior unsecured funding

Key highlights

• Bank of Ireland launched a highly successful €500 million 3 year senior unsecured fixed rate transaction
• This transaction represents Bank of Ireland’s first fully un-guaranteed senior unsecured issuance since June 2008
• Since returning to the public bond markets in November 2012, the Group has now accessed debt markets across the capital structure
• The transaction attracted strong investor demand
  • Oversubscribed order book of more than €1.25 billion
  • Price tightened to 220 basis points over 3 year mid swaps from initial price thoughts of swaps plus circa 225 basis points
  • Issue sold to well-diversified range of 120 investors
•  Lead investment banks on the transaction were BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and RBS, with co-lead managers Davy, Glas Securities and Natixis

Table 1:  Allocation by country

 Table 2:  Allocation by investor type

Bank of Ireland today (29 May 2013) announced it has raised €500 million of 3 year un-guaranteed senior unsecured funding through a highly successful Euro fixed rate transaction.

Today’s transaction further demonstrates Bank of Ireland’s access to capital markets.  This senior unsecured trade follows the Group’s €1 billion 3 year ACS in November 2012, the €500m 5 year ACS in March 2013, the €250 million tier 2 subordinated deal in December 2012 and the Group’s CoCo refinanced from Government to private ownership in January 2013.

The Group last accessed the senior unsecured public bond markets in fully un-guaranteed format in June 2008.  In September 2009, the Group issued a 3.5 year senior unsecured deal that was partially un-guaranteed.

Today’s deal was well received by investors.  Order books were oversubscribed at more than €1.25 billion and the issue was sold to a well-diversified range of 120 investors.  The investor base was also diversified across geographies with 97% of the trade sold to investors outside of Ireland.  The coupon on this 3 year senior unsecured trade is 2.75%.

Overall, the trade is a significant vote of confidence by international bond investors in Bank of Ireland and reflects the material progress being made by Group.

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