Brussels - 19 March 2014 – Euronext N.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of IntercontinentalExchange Group, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), today admitted to listing KBC Group’s 1.4 billion euros in non-dilutive, CRD IV-compliant Additional Tier-1 (AT1) securities on its regulated market in Brussels.
KBC is an integrated bancassurance group, catering mainly for retail, SME and midcap customers. It concentrates on its home markets of Belgium and certain countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Elsewhere around the globe, the group has established a presence in selected countries and regions.
The securities were offered in minimum denominations of 100,000 euros and were placed with institutional and high-net-worth investors spread across Europe and Asia. The securities are perpetual with an optional call from year 5 onwards and a coupon of 5.625% per annum, payable each quarter. They will be qualified as CRD IV-compliant AT1 capital under Basel III standards and are expected to be rated ‘BB‘ by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) and ‘BB’ by Fitch.
Alain Baetens, Head of Listings of Euronext Brussels said: “Euronext congratulates KBC Group for the success of this innovative bond product and its listing on our exchange. The bond environment is evolving rapidly and we remain strongly committed to offering issuers a unique listing and trading platform.”
Luc Popelier, CFO of KBC Group NV stated: “KBC's inaugural euro-denominated CRD IV-compliant Additional Tier-1 instrument proved to be an immediate success, not only in terms of volume and pricing but also in terms of international market interest. Demand for the issue amounted to 7 billion euros against a transaction size of 1.4 billion euros. The fact that KBC managed to complete the transaction in just three days underscores the group's ability to access capital on a global basis. KBC is one of the best capitalised financial institutions in Europe. The issue allows KBC to further strengthen its already robust total capital structure and to position itself even better for the future.
To celebrate the introduction of the new instrument, Luc Popelier, CFO of KBC Group, rang the bell to open trading on Euronext’s European market. He was accompanied by Alain Baetens, Head of Listings of Euronext Brussels and Johan Verschelden, Director of Marketing & Business Development of Euronext Brussels.