Kerry Group completed the sale on Friday of Ireland's lowest-rate corporate bond, which raised €750 million for the food ingredients and nutrition giant.
The fixed-rate 10-year bond, which was listed on Euronext Dublin on Friday, was priced last week to carry an interest rate, or coupon, of 0.625 per cent, a record low rate for an Irish company or financial institution.
“The proceeds of the offering will be used for general business purposes, including the payment of existing indebtedness and the funding of acquisitions that took place over the past 18 months,” the company said.
Inflation expectations
A slew of companies and governments have rushed to the market in September to take advantage of ultra-low bond market rates as central banks ease monetary policy conditions amid weak economic data and inflation expectations.
The European Central Bank (ECB) moved last week to cut its main deposit rate to minus 0.5 per cent from minus 0.5 per cent, while signalling that its quantitative easing (QE) bond-buying programme will restart in November.
The ECB had ended fresh QE purchases last December, having mopped up €2.6 trillion of bonds in the market under a programme that started in early 2015.
