To hit the markets with the largest Tier 1 capital securities issue in history and to thrill them at the same time takes some doing. For a UK institution to manage it following the only run on a British bank in living memory is nothing short of spectacular. Hats off, then, to Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which reopened Europe’s bank capital markets at the same time – hence the aforementioned thrill.
The issue, which was a multi-tranche affair involving more currencies than anyone has ever before used simultaneously, raised a total of €6.2bn. RBS needed the money to fund its 38% share of the €70bn consortium takeover of ABN AMRO with partners Fortis and Santander. That left it looking at funding of some €26bn.
