Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance advises ABN AMRO on successful issuance of EUR 1 billion debut additional tier one (AT1) instruments

Clifford Chance has advised ABN AMRO N.V. ("ABN AMRO'') on its successful EUR 1 billion debut offering of additional tier one (AT1) instruments, so-called CoCo's (Contingent Convertibles).

ABN AMRO mandated its own investment bank, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and UBS as joint bookrunners for the issue of their inaugural perpetual non-call five year AT1. Commerzbank, Natixis and Société Générale were mandated as Co-Lead Managers.

In its press release relating to the AT1 trade, ABN AMRO noted: "This transaction further optimises the capital structure and builds out the buffer of loss absorbing instruments: on a fully loaded and pro forma basis, the Tier 1 ratio reported at Q2 2015 will increase from 14.0% to 14.9% and the leverage ratio will increase from 3.1% to 3.3%."

The euro denominated securities will feature principal loss absorption via temporary write-down, based on a 7% Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) trigger at ABN AMRO Group N.V. level and a 5.125% CET1 trigger at ABN AMRO Bank N.V. level.

Clifford Chance advised ABN AMRO as issuer on all bank regulatory and structuring aspects and drafted all legal documentation. The core team was led by Jurgen van der Meer and furthermore consisted of Hugo van der Molen, Joep Bertrams, Bauke de Vries, Harm Hommes and Wouter van den Bosch.