non opano...(I.M.H.O.)
SNS Reaal Rises After $1.25 Billion Bond Sale: Amsterdam Mover
2012-08-27 10:23:02.439 GMT
By Maud van Gaal
Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- SNS Reaal NV, the Dutch bank and
insurer considering asset sales after losses on real estate
loans, rose the most in more than a week after selling 1 billion
euros ($1.25 billion) of five-year covered bonds.
The shares rose as much as 6.5 percent in Amsterdam, the
biggest intraday gain since Aug. 16, and were up 3.7 percent to
1.17 euros as of 12:06 p.m. SNS’s banking unit on Aug. 24 said
it placed 1 billion euros of covered bonds, due 2017, with a
coupon of 2.125 percent.
SNS Reaal, based in the Dutch city of Utrecht, has dropped
30 percent this year as it struggled to wind down a money-losing
property finance unit, maintain capital buffers and repay a 2008
bailout by the Dutch state. SNS is reviewing “strategic
restructuring scenarios, such as the sale of parts of our
business,” Chief Executive Officer Ronald Latenstein said on
Aug. 16. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was hired as adviser.
“It is positive that they had access to the market, even
if it is at a higher cost than, for instance, ING Bank,” said
Jan Willem Weidema, an Amsterdam-based analyst at ABN Amro with
a hold recommendation on the stock. “Still, it is cheaper than
what they pay on a five-year deposit. This issue also helps
diversify their funding base.”
The bonds were placed with 167 investors mostly outside the
Netherlands, Bart Toering, managing director of SNS Financial
Markets in Amsterdam, said in an interview. German investors
accounted for about 40 percent, while U.K. and French investors
took up about 20 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Swiss
private banks accounted for 10 percent.
‘Relatively Safe’
“Investors are interested as Dutch covered bonds are
considered relatively safe assets,” Toering said. “The Dutch
central bank limits the percentage of assets Dutch financial
institutions can encumber. Moreover, the Netherlands is doing
relatively well within Europe. And in the case of SNS it helps
that we pay a higher spread than for instance ABN Amro or ING,
due to our lower rating.”
SNS Bank is rated Baa2 at Moody’s Investors Service after a
one-level cut on June 15. That compares to an A2 rating for
ING’s banking unit and ABN Amro Bank. Rabobank Nederland, the
biggest Dutch mortgage lender, is rated Aa2 at Moody’s. The
Netherlands, Europe’s fifth-biggest economy, is one among four
euro-area countries that has maintained an AAA rating.
With the bond sale, SNS has met its funding needs until at
least October 2013, Toering said.
“It is important for SNS to show we have access to several
markets, not only covered bonds,” he said. “We may do a
benchmark-size residential-mortgage-backed-securities
transaction in September or October of about 500 million
euros.”
Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad reported the
potential RMBS sale earlier today.
SNS Reaal received 750 million euros from the Netherlands
in 2008 and 500 million euros from Foundation Beheer SNS Reaal,
its largest shareholder. SNS sold shares in 2009 to help repay
250 million euros of aid, of which 185 million euros was
returned to the government.