Austria: Schoenherr advises UNIQA on EUR 500m subordinated notes issuance and simultaneous tender offer

By way of the tender offer, UNIQA refinanced part of its outstanding EUR 326.3m subordinated fixed-to-floating rate notes, which carried an initial coupon of 6.000 %, through newly issued subordinated fixed-to-floating rate notes bearing an initial coupon of 4.500 %. The new notes qualify as tier 2 basic own funds under Solvency II, have a scheduled maturity in 2046 and are listed on the Official Market (Amtlicher Handel) of the Vienna Stock Exchange. The notes are rated BBB+ by S&P.

Launched amid highly volatile market conditions, the transaction ranks among the top three most attractively priced Solvency II tier 2 callable euro-denominated bonds in the European insurance sector over the past four years.

J.P. Morgan SE, UniCredit Bank GmbH, Barclays Bank Ireland PLC, Morgan Stanley Europe SE and Raiffeisen Bank International AG acted as joint bookrunners and dealer managers.

"We congratulate UNIQA on yet another landmark transaction completed despite challenging market conditions and are proud to have advised the company on this successful benchmark tier 2 issuance and tender offer," said Schoenherr Partner Ursula Rath.

The Schoenherr team was led by Ursula Rath (Partner) and further consisted of Angelika Fischer (Counsel), Christoph Moser (Partner), Marco Thorbauer (Partner), Maximilian Nusser (Associate) and Clemens Stockhammer.

The joint bookrunners and dealer managers were advised by Linklaters LLP (lead: Martin Rojahn) and Wolf Theiss (lead: Claus Schneider).