Rabobank Group

12-3-2010 | Other news

Today, Rabobank successfully issued a EUR 1.25 billion, benchmark 10 year fixed rate Senior Contingent Note ("SCN") issue, priced at an annual coupon of 6.875%, reflective of a premium to Rabobank subordinated debt paper, as well as a meaningful discount to where we believe Rabobank would be able to complete a hybrid Tier 1 offering.

The transaction enables Rabobank to further enhance the Bank's creditworthiness, as the offering is designed to ensure that Rabobank's Core Capital is strengthened in the very unlikely event that the Bank's Equity Ratio were to fall below 7%. Rabobank has always been amongst the most conservative banks in the world, and this transaction, which effectively hedges tail risk, once again demonstrates the bank's unwavering commitment to prudence. Finally, the offering anticipates on future (expected) regulatory requirements which are widely expected to be introduced in the near future, and to recognize the value of contingent buffers of capital.

Given the novelty of the transaction structure, an interactive and highly intensive execution process was adopted, starting with the wall-crossing of a limited number of large credit buyers, in the days leading up to Rabobank's annual results on March 4th, followed by a very intensive 4-day marketing effort across London, Paris and Frankfurt in the week of March 8th during which the product and the issuer's credit were discussed with over 80 institutional investors.

Having garnered total orders in excess of EUR 2.6 billion, from more than 180 different accounts, it was decided to formally launch and price a more than twice oversubscribed EUR 1.25 billion offering on Friday March 12.