DUBLIN, Jan 7: Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) said on Wednesday it was seeking to raise 3 billion euros ($4.09 billion) in a five-year benchmark bond and planned a further foray later this year.

“We are quite confident we will be able to do a 3 billion deal,” the NTMA’s director of funding and debt management, Oliver Whelan, told Reuters in an interview.

“It’s pretty early but there is a good spread of investors from right across Europe,” Whelan said after order books opened on Wednesday.

Investors included central banks and asset managers, he said.

Price guidance has been set at mid-swaps plus 90 basis points area, Whelan said, adding that the book was expected to close on Thursday.

“The idea is we’ll leave it open to see how much interest there may be from Asia overnight,” he said.

A glut of euro zone sovereign borrowing is expected this year as governments seek to raise funds to pay for their recession-fighting fiscal stimulus packages.

—Reuters