EBS Building Society, Ireland’s largest building society, has raised €500 million through the issue of three year bonds, in its second public bond transaction under its euro medium term note (EMTN) programme. EBS is one of the largest mortgage lenders in the Irish market, with loan assets under management of €8.5 billion as at 31st December 2003.
A total of 46 investors from 12 countries participated in the deal, which was immediately oversubscribed and the order book closed within 24 hours. EBS originally sought to borrow €300 million but increased the deal size to €500 million due to investor demand. ABN AMRO and HSBC Bank plc were joint lead arrangers.
Commenting on the transaction, Jackie Gilroy, head of EBS treasury said, ‘The success of this deal is particularly satisfying given the number of new investor relationships it has created and the wide geographical spread of investors’.
Over the past few years EBS has used a number of different sources to raise money in the euro markets including committed bank loan facilities, as well as the Emerald mortgage securitisation programme. The building society raised €750 million through this programme in 2003.
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