Just one structured product was added to SRP's Dutch database in December: ING issued the second tranche of Liric Duurzaam september 2023, the bank's first public offering in the Netherlands linked to the Sustainable Europe Low Risk Equity (SELRE) index. The note, which has been given a temporary ISIN and was issued at 104% of the nominal amount, is intended to become fungible and form one series with tranche number one which sold out at €20m.
"True, the first tranche sold out," said Zico Yeh, head of sales structured products for private investors at ING Commercial Banking. "The product is still selling well," he said. "We have now chosen to increase the global, but we are not ruling out launching a new product linked to the [Sustainable Europe Low Risk Equity] index."
Issuance and sales of structured products striking in 2015 in the Netherlands remained on par with 2014: 35 structured products worth €265m struck between January and December (2014: 37 products/€301m) although the number of active providers targeting the Dutch retail investors in 2015 shrunk to three (BNP Paribas, ING and Kempen) after regular issuer ABN Amro closed its equity derivative desk in June 2014 and Commerzbank decided to shift its focus more towards listed leverage products.
BNPP was the most prolific provider in 2015, taking over the market-making activities of the majority of Royal Bank of Scotland's (RBS) listed structured investment products, such as turbos, boosters and memory coupon notes in September 2014, launching 17 structured products. BNPP collaborated with ProBeleggen - the platform which gives retail investors access to the portfolio of professionals - for a number of autocallable Klik & Klaar notes, including three which were linked to the Eurostoxx 50 and one which was linked to oil (Crude Oil Excess Return Index 9% Klik & Klaar Note 2015-2019).
"We came up with the idea and BNP Paribas developed the products and launched them onto the market," said Jim Tehupuring, owner and co-founder of ProBeleggen. "That's how we tried to bring these products to the attention of the public. The nice thing was that some of them completely sold out," he said. For BNPP, it is important to know what the retail investor really wants, according to Tehupuring. "It's not that we publish everything which has been developed by BNP on our website. We indicate what the investor wants and when [BNP] develops this and we think it could be of interest to our members, that's when we publish it."
Kempen launched 14 structured products during 2015, the majority of which were issued on the paper of mother company Van Lanschot while ING issued four products targetted at Dutch retail.
Seven structured products, from four different providers, matured in December. Of these, ABN's Wereld Garantie Note December 2008-2015, a seven-year European medium-term note linked to a weighted basket comprising the S&P 500 (45%), Eurostoxx 50 (30%), Nikkei 225 (10%), MSCI Emerging Markets (9.5%) and MSCI Pacific ex Japan (5.5%), provided the highest return (160.38%/6.96% pa).
A total of 137 structured products, which sold €3.8bn at inception, reached maturity in 2015 (2014: 160 products/€3.4bn). Regular issuers aside, the maturing products - from 25 providers - included offerings from Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort, SNS Bank, Wijs & Van Oostveen and Wilgenhaege Vermogensbeheer.
Meanwhile, IEX Group, the provider of online investment information in the Netherlands and Belgium, which reaches 1.8 million investors via its websites, of which 1.5 million in the Netherlands and approximately 300,000 in Belgium, has become a listed company. The media company whose brands in Dutch retail - in addition to IEX.nl itself - include Belegger.nl, DeBeurs.nl, Eurobench.nl, Participaties.nl and IEXGeld, while IEXProfs, which rates and reviews structured products, focuses on professional investors. The group is active in the Belgian market with Beursduivel.be.
IEX Group listed on Euronext Amsterdam through the reverse takeover of MTY Holdings. The aim of listing is to strengthen the growth of the group, whereby the capital market offers the ability to (partially) finance further business transactions and growth with risk capital, said Peter van Sommeren, chief executive officer of IEX Group. "We expect to further increase IEX brand recognition via this listing and strengthen the bond with our customer base, ie. Dutch and Belgian investors."
The full December market review for the Netherlands will appear shortly.
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