Cantillon: NTMA chases Asia potential

Singapore targeted as destination for government bonds

Irish government 10-year bond yields are hovering at around a very healthy 3.25 per cent, thank you very much.

Should another external economic shock send yields soaring, however, the Government has another option that was not open to it during the worst of the crisis in recent years: sell Irish government paper in Asia.

Almost all Asian institutions will invest in a western government's bonds only if it is listed as investment grade by all three main rating agencies, Fitch, Moodys and Standard & Poors.

As the Irish recovery started to take hold since 2012, the State was quickly retagged as investment grade by S&P and Fitch.

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Moodys delayed giving its imprimatur until last month, however, reopening the route to eastern markets.

The National Treasury Management Agency has, by all accounts, wasted little time since selling the country's story to Asian investors. China, whose institutions are cutting their exposure to US bonds, is an obvious target.

The state-owned China Investment Corporation is already an investor in Ireland, via the $100 million joint venture tech fund it launched with the NTMA last month. It also signed a memorandum of understanding with the NTMA in 2012 to explore ways that it could invest in this country.

Ireland, however, has apparently targeted Singapore as a potentially more lucrative destination for Irish government bonds. Irish officials are said to have taken several trips to the city-state to tout our recovery story since the Moody's upgrade in January. They say Singapore was always an enthusiastic buyer of Irish paper before the crisis hit, and those relationships are being rekindled.

As long as yields remain low and appetite for Irish bonds among traditional investors remains high, there is no problem. Still, there is no harm in widening the pool of potential buyers for our government’s debt beyond mainly US and European banks, if only to lessen their influence on how this State is run.