BCP aims low for senior bond ahead of sovereign downgrade

The senior unsecured market saw three year FRNs from Lloyds and Banco Comercial Portugues this week. While Lloyds was able to issue Eu750m of bonds, BCP priced just Eu300m, with the deal coming at a time when concerns are flaring up again about peripheral European sovereigns and the day before Fitch downgraded Portugal to AA- with negative outlook. While market participants expected a bigger sized deal, lead bankers said the issuer was not looking to issue a benchmark deal and that the trade was a result of reverse enquiries. To find out how market participants reacted to the deals read EuroWeek on Friday or log on to Euroweek.com/bankfinance