Sabadell Places €1,000M In 10-Year Mortgage Bonds

20 April 2017 – Expansión

It has taken Sabadell just four months to debut on the debt market this year. Yesterday, it completed the placement of €1,000 million in mortgage bonds with a maturity of 10 years, to leave Popular as the only entity that, given the uncertainty surrounding its specific situation, has not resorted to the capital markets to raise finance or secure resources for its capital buffer.

For these bonds, Sabadell is offering a coupon of 1%, in other words, 33 basis points above the mid-swap rate, the reference rate for issuances of fixed income securities in euros. The mortgage bonds are the safest debt that an entity can issue, given that, in Spain, they are guaranteed by all of the mortgage loans of the issuing bank, which serve as collateral in the event of bankruptcy. There has never been a default of this kind in Spain.

To carry out the operation, Sabadell has received help from Barclays, Commerzbank, Crédit Agricole, Lloyds and Natixis, as well as from its own investment banking team. Demand for the bond issue amounted to €2,400 million, in other words, more than twice the amount awarded.

Santander Totta

Meanwhile, Santander Totta, the Portuguese subsidiary of Santander, launched an order yesterday to place 7- and 10-year mortgage bonds. According to sources in the market, the operation will close tomorrow and will serve to raise cheap financing. Besides Santander, the following entities are participating in that operation: Unicredit, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale.

Original story: Expansión (by A. Stumpf)

Translation: Carmel Drake