Bankia flies with senior return despite wobbly market

By Will Caiger-Smith
09 Jan 2014

Spanish banking conglomerate Bankia found overwhelming demand for its first post-crisis senior unsecured deal on Thursday, as investors placed almost €3.5bn of orders for the five year trade. While the broader market showed some signs of weakness, bankers were confident that the FIG feeding frenzy would continue — even the sterling market saw some action, with Axa pricing a €750m 40 non-call 10 year subordinated bond.

But it was Bankia that stole the limelight. Lead managers Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Commerzbank, Natixis and UBS went out with initial pricing thoughts of 250bp over mid-swaps on Thursday morning, having announced the trade on Wednesday afternoon.

As orders flooded in, guidance was tightened to 240bp before the final spread was ...

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