Linklaters works with Dutch bank on £1bn Basel III bond
Linklaters and in-house lawyers at Rabobank advised on the first tier-one bank bond compliant with Basel III since the new regulatory regime came in.
The $2bn (£1.26bn) hybrid bond, issued by Netherlands-based Rabobank, has an 8.4 per cent yield and will be written down if the bank breaches certain capital limits.
It is compliant with Basel III regulations, which attempt to increase the amount of capital on bank balance sheets.
The lead managers and bookrunners were Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Rabobank International and Nomura. The co-lead managers were Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and UBS.
Linklaters acted for all seven banks, fielding a team run by London equity and debt markets head Carson Welsh and City associate Neil Pallender, as well as Amsterdam capital markets and financial regulatory partner Pim Horsten.
The instruction was primarily run out of the London office, but the Dutch team had significant involvement.
Despite the complexity involved in the bond, Rabobank relied on advice from in-house lawyers for the issue. The bank does, nonetheless, have a relationship with Linklaters, which it has turned to for advice on bond issues on previous occasions.
A prospectus for a certificate and warrant programme last month shows that the magic circle firm acted for Rabobank as issuer’s counsel out of London and Amsterdam.
A e1.6bn (£1.37bn) Rabobank global medium-term note programme by its Australia and Singapore branches in May, however, gave instructions to Australian firm Blake Dawson, which is set to rebrand as Ashurst next year, on Australian law.
Linklaters’ Singapore joint venture partner Allen & Glenhill, which is in talks with Linklaters’ rival Allen & Overy regarding a tie-up, advised Rabobank on Singapore law.
inklaters won its own role on the matter, advising the large consortium of dealers.
Last year Linklaters’ Amsterdam team advised joint managers Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS on Dutch law aspects of Rabobank’s March 2010 issue of e1.25bn of senior contingent notes with an annual yield of 6.875 per cent. The prospectus implies legal advice to the issuer was also carried out in-house.
