Belfius has reported the outstanding amount for structured notes targeted at retail investors stood at €8.7bn at the end of June 2015, down from €10bn at the end of 2014. The notes, which are not listed, are issued via the bank’s Belfius Financing Company vehicle with Belfius Bank acting as the guarantor. The outstanding amount for Luxembourg listed notes aimed at institutional investors which are issued via the bank’s EMTN Programme was €4.9bn at the end of H1 2015 (end 2014: €4.7bn), the bank said.
Belfius launched 24 structured notes worth €392m during H1 2015, down year-on-year – both in issuance (-20%) and sales (-56.4%) – from the 30 structured notes with a sales volume of €899m that were issued by the bank during the first six months of last year; in H2 2014 Belfius issued 23 structured notes worth €422m.
Thirteen structures, out of a total of 24, which were issued by Belfius during H1 2015 were linked to equity indices, including the Eurostoxx Select Dividend 30, Stoxx Europe 600 Health Care and Stoxx Europe 600 Utilities; five products were linked to the interest rate; four to commodities; and two to actively managed funds. The best-selling product in H1 2015 was Belfius Financing Company (LU) Multicallable 11. The seven-year capital protected note linked to the Eurostoxx Select Dividend 30 offers 100% participation in the rise of the index, subject to 12 month back-end averaging. Belfius has the option to call the product after five or six years of investment. In that case the product offers 116.25% or 119.50% capital return, respectively.
Belfius net income was up 22% to €272m during the first half-year. As at June 30, 2015, the balance sheet total amounted to €179.6bn, a decrease of €14.8bn or 7.6% compared to December 31, 2014. Belfius said the decrease of the balance sheet total over the first half of 2015 primarily resulted from the repayment of the government-guaranteed bonds issued by Dexia Crédit Local (DCL) for an amount of €10bn and the decrease of the fair value of derivatives as well as the related cash collateral following interest rate evolution in H1 2015.
Click here to view the Belfius results for H1 2015.
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