Banco Santander SA is lining up a raft of banks, including Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG, to underwrite its planned 7 billion euro ($7.8 billion) capital increase, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Spain’s largest lender has also picked Barclays Plc, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, HSBC Holdings Plc and CaixaBank SA, to participate, the people said, asking not to be named as the details aren’t public. While no final decisions have been made, the bank plans to tap shareholders by July, they said.

Italian lenders Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, Mediobanca SpA and UniCredit SpA are also expected to have roles on the deal, the people said. Santander was one of the managers on UniCredit’s 13 billion euro rights sale in February, the largest such transaction by a bank globally this year.

Santander is expected to name even more banks on its sale, the people said. European banks have announced about $37 billion in additional stock sales this year and sellers are careful to include all their lending banks as well as those who may give them business in the roster of advisers. The large sales this year have typically included a dozen banks or more, and Deutsche Bank had 32 advisers on its 8 billion euro sale, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Banks on Santander’s stock sale could be paid up to 1.5 percent of what they underwrite in deal fees, with global coordinators also getting a structuring fee, the people said.

Santander is raising funds to shore up Banco Popular Espanol SA’s balance sheet after acquiring the bank for 1 euro in a deal brokered by European regulators following a run on deposits. Citigroup Inc. and UBS Group AG are global coordinators on the stock sale.

Representatives from Santander and the banks declined to comment.

Shares of Santander fell 2.1 percent to 5.93 euros at 5:09 p.m. in Madrid. The stock has gained about 2.2 percent since the day before the lender announced the capital increase last week, an indication of investor appetite for bank fundraising.

This will be the second time chairman Ana Botin taps shareholders for new funds since she took over as Santander’s No. 1 executive in September 2014 following her father’s death. In January 2015, the lender announced a 7.5 billion euro share sale to strengthen the bank’s capital. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS ran that capital increase.

Source:
courtesy of BLOOMBERG

by Ruth David , Esteban Duarte , and Manuel Baigorri

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]