Davy expands bond desk ahead of expected surge of new debt issuance

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by Irish Times, click this post to read the original article.

Davy has hired four senior bond market figures for its bond desk, in anticipation of an expected surge in debt sales by semistate and corporate issuers in the coming years as investment in infrastructure and the green transition accelerates.

The additions will bring the firm’s debt capital markets team to nine, almost the size it was before Davy closed its bond – or fixed-income – desk for two years in March 2021 in the wake of a Central Bank fine.

The unit, led for the past to years by Michael Cummins, has appointed Aaron McIvor, who previously worked with BNP Paribas, most recently on its private debt placements desk in New York, as a director of debt capital markets.

Eavan Coakley has joined Davy as director of debt origination from the firm’s parent, Bank of Ireland, where she worked for more than seven years in the corporate and treasury business. In 2024, she led the establishment of an expanded green product offering for Irish corporate clients. Coakley previously held debt-related roles with Investec, Australia’s ANZ Bank and NatWest Group, formerly Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)

Ross Keeling, who previously spent 13 years with HSBC in Dublin in roles including infrastructure and real estate debt origination, has joined Davy as director of debt solutions.

Rod McAuliffe, a senior bond trader with Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland, is set to move to Davy’s bond trading team in April. Before joining Cantor in 2019, he spent four years in Bank of Ireland’s Global Markets division in interest rate swap and foreign exchange trading roles.

“The continued buildout of Davy’s Debt Capital Markets capability is reflective of an increasing need for Irish debt issuers to get access to institutional fixed income investors as we enter an unprecedented period of investment in Ireland over the next 10 years,” said Damian Roddy, head of capital markets at Davy.

[ Davy closes bond desk amid crisis over market rules breachesOpens in new window ]

Davy’s authorisation as a primary dealer of Irish Government bonds was withdrawn in March 2021 after the firm received a €4.1 million Central Bank fine and rebuke over a breach of market rules in a 2014 bond deal involving junior Anglo Irish Bank bonds.

The regulator said Davy failed to identify whether a conflict of interest existed as 16 staff bought junior bonds in Anglo Irish Bank, in liquidation at the time, from a client, Northern Ireland developer Patrick Kearney, without disclosing that they were the buyers.

The regulator also found that Davy had kept its own compliance officials in the dark on the deal.

The fallout prompted Davy to close its entire bond desk and ultimately led to the firm being sold to Bank of Ireland – which previously controlled the business for almost two decades – in 2022.

Davy was recognised again by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) as a primary dealer early last year. The size of the Davy’s bond desk now matches that of rival Goodbody Stockbrokers, where the latter’s team has grown to nine people, across trading, distribution and advisory, from a two-man desk when that firm was acquired by AIB in 2021.

Semi-state companies from EBS and Gas Networks Ireland to airport operator DAA are poised to raise billions of euros in the bond markets in the coming years as they play their part in building out infrastructure under the €275.4 billion National Development Plan, stretching from 2026 to 2035.

Significant planned investment in infrastructure and housing by the Government and the private sector is expected to increase funding requirements and ongoing engagement with domestic and foreign institutional investors.