BBVA launches its first CoCos issue since the Credit Suisse crisis

The market for additional tier 1 (AT1) debt, which banks can use to bolster their tier 1 capital buffers, has been frozen following the U.S. bank failures and the Credit Suisse crisis, which left the bank's AT1 debt holders unprotected.

MADRID, Jun 13 (Reuters) - Spanish bank BBVA said on Tuesday it has come to market with the issue of its first AT1 contingently convertible bond ("CoCo") since the bailout of Credit Suisse in March 2023.

The bank said it aims to raise between €750 million ($810.08 million) and €1 billion with this issue.

According to Refinitiv's IFR capital markets news service, the issue has already received orders worth €2 billion.

The Spanish bank said on Tuesday that its AT1 bond has a redemption window of December 21, 2028 and an exit interest rate of 8.75%.

The underwriting banks are Barclays, BBVA, Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Natixis, BBVA said.

This is the first "CoCo" issued by BBVA since July 2020.

(1 dollar = 0.9258 euros)

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado and Chiara Elisei; editing by Louise Heavens; Spanish editing by José Muñoz)