The ESB has decided "now is not the right time to issue an inflation-linked bond," after hiring advisers to test investor appetite this month.

The company "wants to allow more certainty to emerge with regard to pending pensions funding standards regulation before progressing further with this," Bernardine Maloney, a spokeswoman for ESB, said by phone today.

"But we will continue to monitor the market."

ESB said on October 15 it had retained Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Dublin-based Goodbody Stockbrokers to arrange a series of investor meetings with a view to selling an inflation-linked bond denominated in euro, subject to market conditions.

The power group was planning to raise at least €150 million from the sale of a 20-year inflation-linked bond, a person with knowledge of the proposal said on October 17.

Bloomberg