UniCredit issued €750 million of perpetual Additional Tier 1 notes to institutional investors, completing a deal it said would lift its Tier 1 ratio by about 25 basis points. The securities carry a 6.25% fixed coupon until December 2031. Demand exceeded €3.5 billion from more than 220 investors, allowing the Italian bank to tighten pricing from initial guidance.
The issue forms part of UniCredit’s 2026 institutional minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities funding plan. The bank set a 284.1-basis-point reset margin, which it described as the lowest in its history. S&P Global Ratings separately assessed the new €750 million AT1 issue, providing external confirmation of the transaction.
STRONG DEMAND TIGHTENED TERMS
Initial coupon guidance was 6.625%–6.75%, before order-book demand enabled pricing at 6.25%. Funds received 67% of the allocation, hedge funds 17%, and central banks and official institutions 9%. By geography, investors in the UK took 33%, France 26% and Asia 9%.
UniCredit Bank GmbH coordinated the sale, with Barclays, BNP Paribas, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Santander joining as bookrunners. The broad syndicate and oversubscribed book indicate access to the institutional capital market on terms the issuer regarded as favourable. The reset spread, rather than the headline coupon alone, is the bank’s clearest evidence for that claim.
LOSS-ABSORBING FEATURES REMAIN
The notes are deeply subordinated and include a 5.125% Common Equity Tier 1 trigger. If either UniCredit or the group falls below that threshold, the instrument can be temporarily written down to help cure the breach alongside comparable securities. Coupon payments are discretionary, reflecting the loss-absorbing design of AT1 capital.
The next concrete milestone is UniCredit’s next capital disclosure, which should show whether the expected roughly 25-basis-point Tier 1 uplift has been recognised. Longer term, the first call window in December 2031 will determine whether the perpetual securities are redeemed or reset. Any call remains conditional on supervisory approval.