LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal’s largest bank, Caixa Geral de Depositos (CGD), said on Monday it had issued a 500 million euro (£426.5 million) senior non-preferred five-year bond, the first time a Portuguese lender has issued this type of debt.
State-owned CGD’s bond, which carries an interest rate of 1.25%, was placed exclusively with institutional investors.
The bond issue is part of a financing plan by CGD to comply with the so-called MREL regulation, which sets a minimum requirement for a bank’s own funds and eligible liabilities.
The bank said 28% of investors were from the United Kingdom, 16% from France, 16% form Portugal, 8% from the Netherlands, 8% from Spain and 7% from Italy.
Asset managers made up 70% of the buyers of the bonds, with the bid seven times higher than the amount on offer, it added.
CGD said in a statement that an “improvement of profitability, solvency and asset quality” had resulted in a significant decrease in its financing cost.
Reporting by Catarina Demony and Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Alexander Smith
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