BBVA (Spain’s second largest bank by assets) issued a €750m additional tier 1 (AT1) bond.

This increases the bank’s regulatory capital – positioning BBVA for its €12bn hostile takeover bid for Sabadell (Spain’s fourth largest bank by assets).

The bond received strong demand – with an initial order book of €3.5 billion.

The issuance coupon achieved by BBVA for the PerpNC7 Ba2/BB (Moody’s/Fitch) bond was 6.875% – much lower than initial price guidance of 7.375%.