Glencore Raises $2.5Bn Through Share Placing to Help Cut Debt Load

Glencore raises $2.5bn through share placing to help cut debt load

BY NEIL HUME, JAMES WILSON AND DAVID SHEPPARD FINANCIAL TIMES | SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

Glencore has raised $2.5bn through a share placing, part of the miner-cum-trader’s $10bn package of measures to cut its large debt load and safeguard its investment grade credit rating. The UK-listed group, reeling from the latest commodities slump, issued 1.3bn new shares on Wednesday at a price of 125p, a slight discount to Tuesday’s closing price of 128p. The stock had touched a record low of 118p earlier on Tuesday. Shares in Glencore rose 3.2 per cent to 132p on Wednesday morning. The new shares issued represent 9.99 per cent of the company’s issued ordinary share capital prior to the placing. Senior executives bought a large portion of the new shares, including Ivan Glasenberg, chief executive, who spent $211m. Telis Mistakidis, Glencore’s head of copper, spent $80m while Daniel Mate, head of zinc, spent $81m. The equity issue is the first cash call by one of the world’s large diversified mining groups since the so- called commodities supercycle went into reverse, prompted by China’s economic slowdown. Glencore has been among the hardest hit because of concern for its $30bn of net debt and exposure to commodities such as copper and coal, which are trading close to their lowest levels since the financial crisis. Glencore’s shares have slumped by more than half this year, making them the worst performer in London’s FTSE 100 index. They have lost more than three-quarters of their value since the company’s 2011 initial public offering — the largest ever on the London Stock Exchange. Tuesday’s equity placing, equivalent to just under 10 per cent of Glencore’s existing share capital, comes a week after Mr Glasenberg promised to prepare the group’s balance sheet for “Armageddon”. The debt reduction package also includes a plan to sell up to $2bn of assets and scrap two dividend payments amounting to $2.4bn. Preserving Glencore’s investment grade credit rating is important for its trading business, which needs access to cheap finance in order to move millions of tonnes of copper, coal and other commodities around the world. Analysts believe more miners might be forced to follow Glencore’s decision to raise funds and cut dividends. The decision to issue shares via a so-called accelerated bookbuild means Glencore can proceed quickly, without the need for a shareholder vote or the publication of a prospectus. People close to Glencore said the intention was to give shareholders first refusal on whether to buy shares, in proportion to their existing holdings, but potentially excluding hedge funds that have shorted the stock. “This gets things done quickly so the company can get back to focusing on business,” said one person familiar with the company. “The company has been in talking to shareholders for a week so they have a good idea of who is interesting in buying new shares.” Glencore considered alternatives to a share placing, including a convertible bond, which would have meant less dilution for existing shareholders but could have excluded some equity-only investors. “A mandatory convertible is also quick but it is less friendly to long-only shareholders,” said another person close to the company. The new shares are likely to be placed with investors at a small discount to Tuesday’s closing price. The issue has been underwritten by Barclays, Citi and Morgan Stanley.

UniCredit Sets Discount for $14 Billion Rights Offer at 38%

BY SONIA SIRLETTI AND CHIARA VASARRI BLOOMBERG | FEBRUARY 1, 2017

UniCredit SpA will sell new shares for more than a third less than their current price in a 13 billion- euro ($14 billion) rights offer aimed at strengthening its capital position. The bank will sell stock at 8.09 euros a share and offer 13 new shares for every five held, the Milan- based lender said in a statement Wednesday. The offer price is 38 percent less than the theoretical value of the shares excluding the rights, known as TERP. “The discount is in line with expectations,” said Fabrizio Bernardi, a Milan-based analyst at Fidentiis Equities. “Such a discount implies a high dilution for investors who plan to not fully subscribe to shares, and this can increase price volatility when the offer starts.” Fondazione Cariverona, one of UniCredit’s biggest investors, will subscribe to up to 73 percent of its current 2.23 percent stake, it said in a statement. Another major shareholder, Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, may invest as much as 320 million euros, roughly equivalent to its 2.5 percent stake, La Stampa reported last month. UniCredit Chief Executive Officer Jean Pierre Mustier is selling stock and assets to cover losses on bad loans and finance his turnaround plans. Mustier is seeking to accelerate the bank’s share offer to repair capital buffers that fell below regulatory requirements at the end of last year as a result of the balance- sheet cleanup. UniCredit fell 2 percent to 26.08 euros as of the Milan close on Thursday, giving the company a market value of 16.2 billion euros. Buy Recommendation Banca Akros SpA said in a note that it’s lowering its target price on UniCredit to 32 euros from 37 euros, but keeping its buy recommendation, after the discount exceeded the 25 percent that it had anticipated in December. A group of underwriting banks led by Morgan Stanley and UBS Group AGhave guaranteed the rights offer, the lender said. UniCredit’s investors can buy stock from Feb. 6 to Feb. 23, and the rights will trade from Feb. 6 to Feb. 17. Since Mustier became CEO in July of a lender burdened by mounting debt and the slimmest capital buffer among Europe’s big banks, the stock has gained about 40 percent as investors bet on his ability to reshape UniCredit’s finances. In December, he outlined a turnaround plan that included the rights offer, asset disposals and cost-cutting to restore finances and boost the balance sheet. “The successful completion of the rights issue will enable the bank’s capital requirements to be maintained following the implementation of the measures included in the strategic plan, as well as to align these requirements with those of the best European” systemically important banks, UniCredit said in the statement. Financial Targets The bank confirmed its 2019 financial targets, including one for a key capital ratio, even as it took 1 billion euros of additional charges in the fourth quarter. That brought the 2016 annual loss to 11.8 billion euros. UniCredit’s share sale, which comes after peer Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA failed to raise 5 billion euros in December, was previously expected to begin after fourth-quarter earnings are released on Feb. 9. Last year, Banco Popolare SC raised 1 billion euros in a rights offer, pricing new stock at a 29 percent discount on TERP. In 2012, amid the global financial crisis, UniCredit sold shares at a 43 percent discount to raise 7.5 billion euros.

Credit Suisse launches $4bn share sale to ease capital fears

BY LAURA NOONAN AND RALPH ATKINS FINANCIAL TIMES | APRIL 26, 2017

Credit Suisse has launched a SFr4bn ($4bn) share sale and abandoned plans to list its Swiss division in an attempt to finally quash capital fears that have dogged the bank since chief executive Tidjane Thiam took the helm more than two years ago. Switzerland’s second-largest bank said it would ask shareholders to approve the capital plans at an extraordinary meeting on May 18. It will also close its SFr83bn bad bank a year earlier than planned, in 2018. “Nobody is more eager than me to get to 2018, to then see in 2019 what the bank can deliver,” Mr Thiam said, describing how the extra capital will fuel more growth in divisions that are “constrained”. The sum the bank is asking for is at the higher end of the SFr2bn-SFr4bn capital gap it cited in February, when it said it might axe the Swiss listing, which was a cornerstone of Mr Thiam’s 2015 restructuring plan. Still, shares in Credit Suisse rose 2.5 per cent in early trading to SFr15.7 as investors digested the prospect of buying new shares at a discount of about 29 per cent to Tuesday’s closing price. Analysts said the latest share rise reflected the fact that the rights issue was already priced in, and that investors were happy with the bank’s first-quarter earnings, which were 37 per cent ahead of analysts’ predictions. The cash call comes less than two years after Credit Suisse sold SFr6.05bn of fresh equity to shore up the bank’s balance sheet and fund a restructuring to create a Swiss and Asia-Pacific focused wealth management group and downsize its investment bank. The investment bank restructuring proved more costly than expected and Asian growth forecasts were cut. The bank’s leadership faces a shareholder revolt over executive pay at Friday’s annual meeting, despite top executives’ recent decision to cut their proposed SFr78m bonus package in 2016 by 40 per cent. Asked whether investors could be confident that this was the final cash call, Mr Thiam told reporters that a SFr2bn-SFr4bn capital increase had always been planned for 2017. “The only discussion is about how we do it,” he said. “It’s not something that we have to do because we are under pressure, because the plan is not going well,” he added. “The businesses have done so well that they are capital constrained,” Mr Thiam said. Credit Suisse beat analysts’ expectations for the first quarter by delivering pre-tax profits of SFr889m against the SFr648m expected. Even global markets, the bank’s most troubled division of late, swung to a SFr339m pre-tax profit as buoyant market conditions drove a 133 per cent increase in credit and securitised products revenues. The bank’s common equity tier one ratio (CET1) — a key measure of financial strength — rose to 11.7 per cent from 11.5 per cent at the end of December, better than the 11.5 per cent analysts expected. After the capital raise, which is fully underwritten by Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse expects a CET1 ratio of 13.4 per cent, which it says will bring the bank “into line with European peers”. Deutsche Bank achieved a CET1 ratio of 14.1 per cent after its €8bn capital raise in April. Chirantan Barua, analyst at Bernstein, told clients the capital raising “should be enough to allay concerns in the near term” but “doesn’t really take capital totally out of the concern zone — just makes it cycle/earnings dependent for the next 12 months”. Kian Abouhossein, analyst at JPMorgan, said Credit Suisse could run with lower capital than Deutsche because it “is a much more stable business than Deutsche . . . (and) generates more organic capital on an ongoing basis than Deutsche”. The management board’s proposal to keep the Swiss bank was unanimously approved by Credit Suisse directors. David Mathers, finance director, said the planned share sale would cost half as much as it would have to list the Swiss unit, which was “historically our most stable generator of capital and cash flows”. The strong earnings power of the Swiss bank also made it less keen to sell part of it, while a 67 per cent rise in Credit Suisse shares from a low last July made the bank more comfortable issuing new stock.

Telia Sells $500 Million Turkcell Stake to Focus on Nordics

BY NICLAS ROLANDER BLOOMBERG | MAY 3, 2017

Telia AB sold about $500 million worth of stock in Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, making progress on a vow to focus on its home region as it reduces its holding in an investment tied up in a decade-long ownership feud. Stockholm-based Telia agreed to sell 155 million shares in Turkcell to institutional investors in an accelerated offering, the company said in a statement Thursday. The shares, representing a 7 percent stake in the carrier, were sold at 11.45 Turkish liras apiece, almost 7 percent lower than Wednesday’s closing price in Istanbul. Telia is still Turkcell’s biggest shareholder with a combined 31 percent stake. However, much of it is tied up in a partnership that includes Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman’s LetterOne Holdings and Cukurova Holding AS, owned by Turkcell founder Mehmet Emin Karamehmet. The partners have been fighting a three-cornered battle for control of the company for years, most recently in an arbitration process that left a stalemate intact between Fridman and Karamehmet. The feud has tied up money that Telia Chief Executive Officer Johan Dennelind would rather use to invest closer to home. Last month, Sweden’s former telecom monopoly completed an acquisition of Norwegian operator Phonero to strengthen its market position with corporate clients, and Telia continues to look for acquisition opportunities to expand its offering in Nordic and Baltic countries. “Disciplined capital allocation is of utmost importance in managing Telia,” Dennelind said in the statement. “We are focused on ensuring that as much of our capital as possible works at the core of our strategy.” Turkcell fell 6.7 percent to 11.46 liras at 11:28 a.m. in Istanbul, the steepest intraday decline since Feb. 22. Telia declined 0.1 percent to 36.59 kronor in Stockholm. In December, Telia registered 287.6 million shares of its Turkcell stake for possible sale, in the first sign the Swedish carrier was preparing to exit part of its investment. Wednesday’s sale, which Telia said produced gross proceeds of $503 million, leaves the company with a 7 percent direct holding in Turkcell and marks an important step in Dennelind’s plan to concentrate investments to markets closer to home. Board Spats Spats over board representation, the size of dividends and other issues have hampered operations at Turkcell as each shareholder tried to outlast the other. Telia said it has no intention to sell its indirect interest in Turkcell, and Dennelind said he doesn’t expect that the deadlock will be easier to solve following the stake sale. “We continue to work relentlessly to find solutions to our shareholding in Turkcell,” Dennelind said. Since Dennelind announced plans to exit Asian markets that accounted for almost a third of the company’s earnings in September 2015, Telia has divested units in Nepal and Tajikistan, but has struggled to sell other Central Asian holdings amid a probe into alleged corruption in Uzbekistan. The proceeds from the sale of the Turkcell shares will cushion Telia’s cash position as the company prepares to pay a fine of about $1 billion to U.S. and Dutch authorities to settle allegations that Telia paid bribes to win business in Uzbekistan. Last month, Dennelind said he’s close to reaching a deal with the authorities and that the likely settlement would be lower than the previous assumption of $1.45 billion. BofA Merrill Lynch, Citi and UBS acted as joint bookrunners for Wednesday’s offering, Telia said. Cobham raises around £500m in latest rights issue

PEGGY HOLLINGER FINANCIAL TIMES | 5 MAY 2017

Cobham has raised roughly £500m as investors took up almost all of their rights in a deeply discounted, two for five share issue, the second capital raising by the defence equipment company in less than a year. All but two percent of the issue at 75p a share was taken up, with underwriters BofA Merrill Lynch and J.P.Morgan Cazenove and Barclays finding buyers for the 13.6m outstanding shares. The successful fundraising will be a relief to Cobham, which – just days after announcing the latest rights issue – found itself the focus of an investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority for the manner in which it had handled sensitive information ahead of a previous £500m fund-raising in 2016. The company, which has issued a trove of profit warnings over the last two years, will use the cash to pay down debt. It has said that without the funds there was a risk it could breach debt covenants. New chief executive David Lockwood, appointed in December to turn round the struggling group, has also said the funding was necessary to bolster customer confidence in a company which works on large, sensitive defence contracts. In February the group revealed a £150m charge for a troublesome contract to Provide aerial wing refuelling technology on the KC-46 tanker being developed by Boeing for the US Air Force. It also booked a £546m impairment charge against many of the other businesses acquired in an ill- judged acquisition spree under previous management.

Barclays cuts stake in African operations further than expected

BY MARTIN ARNOLD FINANCIAL TIMES | JUNE 1, 2017

Barclays has brought the curtain down on more than a century of African operations by selling a bigger chunk of its business in the continent than expected, which will boost capital while generating a £1.2bn loss. Citing strong demand from institutional investors, Barclays said on Thursday it had sold a 33.7 per cent stake in its Johannesburg-listed offshoot, increasing by half the size of the planned share offering it had outlined a few hours earlier. After the planned contribution of about 10 per cent of Barclays’ remaining shares to a South African black empowerment scheme, the bank said its stake in its African business would fall from 50 per cent to just below 15 per cent. Selling out of Africa was one of the major decisions by Jes Staley after he became Barclays chief executive 18 months ago. He is seeking to boost the bank’s capital and shrink its geographic presence back to its main US and UK markets. Selling out of Africa was one of the major decisions by Jes Staley after he became Barclays chief executive 18 months ago. He is seeking to boost the bank’s capital and shrink its geographic presence back to its main US and UK markets. Mr Staley told the Financial Times that the Africa sale meant the bank had finished its many years of reshaping its operations. It is preparing to close down the non-core unit it established three years ago to offload £400bn of toxic assets. “We are done restructuring,” said Mr Staley. “What that does to employee morale and in terms of aligning the company’s interests with shareholders’ interests is really significant. This is going to be a seminal change at this bank.” One of Mr Staley’s first moves as chief executive was to introduce a hiring freeze, which helped to cut employee numbers from 142,000 to 82,600 and has only recently been lifted. Analysts are licking their lips at the expected capital uplift from the Africa sale. They expect Barclays will rebuild its dividend, which was cut in half by Mr Staley, or buy back expensive debt. Ian Gordon, analyst at Investec, said the Africa sale was “utterly transformational for Barclays’ capital position, which in turn offers specific opportunities for earnings enhancement, and [at least] underpins our existing expectation for a material step-up in the 2018 dividend”. The bank could boost its earnings by £200m a year by buying back its US preference shares. It is paying more than 8 per cent interest on those shares without any benefit to its capital position, Mr Gordon said. Barclays said the sale of shares in Barclays Africa Group Limited at R132 per share, raised £2.2bn and would allow it to deconsolidate its African business from its accounts. The deal will immediately add 27 basis points to its common equity tier one ratio — a key benchmark of banking strength — which was 12.5 per cent in March, below its 13 per cent target and lagged behind some of its main rivals. The bank is still awaiting approval from regulators to deconsolidate BAGL from its capital calculations, which it said would add a further 46 basis points to its capital. That is expected to happen by next year but depends on progress in establishing Barclays Africa as a standalone entity that no longer relies on its former UK parent for technology, branding or other services. Barclays this year agreed to pay about £800m to Barclays Africa as part of a three-year divorce agreement that had to be approved by South African regulators before it could cut its stake below 50 per cent. The sale will mean a loss of £1.2bn for Barclays, “as a result of the recycling of currency translation reserve to the income statement” to reflect the weaker South African rand against sterling since it consolidated BAGL in 2005. The loss will be included in its interim results but would not hit its capital, the bank said. South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation, the government pension fund manager, had agreed to buy shares representing 7 per cent of BAGL in the offering on top of its existing 7 per cent stake — making it the second-largest shareholder in the bank. Barclays recently agreed a deal to sell its separate Egyptian business and it is selling its Zimbabwe operation, which also sits outside of BAGL.

Bayer cuts Covestro stake in transactions worth 2.5 billion euros

LUDWIG BURGER REUTERS | JUNE 6, 2017

Bayer AG set out on Tuesday to reduce its stake in plastics and chemicals subsidiary Covestro further from 53.3 percent, part of a plan to sever ownership ties completely in the medium term. Bayer said in a statement after the market close it was placing 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) of Covestro shares, 1 billion euros of convertible bonds and transferring a 4 percent stake, worth 530 million euros, into Bayer’s retirement fund. Bayer said it could not give the new size of its stake in Covestro until the terms of the bookbuilding transaction were settled but would still hold the majority of the voting rights as the votes of the shares going into the pension fund would be ascribed to Bayer. The 2 billion euros in proceeds from the two open market placements will come in handy as Bayer raises debt and equity financing for its $66 billion takeover of Monsanto (MON.N), the biggest deal ever to be paid for in cash. Bayer said it would deposit 8 million Covestro shares, a stake of close to 4 percent according to Thomson Reuters data, in Bayer’s pension trust in the near future. That stake in Covestro - a maker of transparent plastics and materials for insulation foams - would be worth about 530 million euros based on Tuesday’s closing price, taking the combined value of the transactions to 2.53 billion euros. Bayer said it would continue to fully consolidate the subsidiary in its financial statements following the transactions. As part of the two market transactions with institutional investors, the German drugmaker said it had started placing 1 billion euros in Covestro shares in an accelerated bookbuilding procedure after Tuesday’s market close. Also after the close, Bayer offered 1 billion euros in bonds that are exchangeable into Covestro shares maturing in 2020. Bayer, which floated Covestro in 2015, transferred a stake of about 5 percent in the business into its pension fund in April last year. Bayer also placed 4 billion euros in mandatory convertible notes in November, part of a plan to raise $19 billion worth of equity capital for the Monsanto deal, which Bayer plans to wrap up by the end of 2017.

Dutch State Raises $1.68 Billion Selling 7% Stake in ABN Amro

BY KEITH CAMPBELL AND JOOST AKKERMANS BLOOMBERG | JUNE 28, 2017

The Dutch state raised about 1.48 billion euros ($1.68 billion) from selling an additional 7 percent stake in ABN Amro Group NV, taking advantage of steady demand for European bank stocks as it progresses toward full privatization. The government sold 65 million shares for EU22.75 apiece in an accelerated bookbuild, reducing its holding to 63 percent, NLFI, which manages the state’s financial investments, said Wednesday. The remaining shares in ABN Amro are subject to a lock-up period of 60 days following the settlement, NLFI said. The offering adds to some $44 billion of European bank shares sold or scheduled to be placed this year amid optimism about growth in the euro region. Wind-downs of several troubled lenders in Spain and Italy this year have also failed to dent confidence. Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Tuesday that his country plans to sell further stakes in Bankia SA if there’s demand, after the state- owned lender agreed to take over Banco Mare Nostrum SA. ABN Amro, once one of the world’s biggest banks, has refocused its business on domestic lending in the wake of its near collapse during the financial crisis. It returned as a publicly traded company in November 2015 when the government sold a 23 percent stake in an initial offering. The Dutch state plans to gradually sell down its holding. ABN Amro has rallied about 10 percent this year, compared with a 6.8 percent gain in the 37-member Bloomberg Europe 500 Banks and Financial Services Index. The shares closed Wednesday at 23.24 euros. The bank recently has been reshuffling its senior ranks, replacing veterans of its state-brokered reorganization as it prepares for the return to full private ownership. In May, it announced that Delta Lloyd Chief Financial Officer Clifford Abrahams would take on the same role at the bank, replacing Kees van Dijkhuizen, who was named chief executive officer in January. ABN Amro also intends to appoint Tanja Cuppen from Rabobank North America as chief risk officer. Margins are under pressure on loans due to low interest rates from the European Central Bank, though a lending push helped drive profit. Net interest income, the bank’s main source of revenue, rose 3 percent to 1.6 billion euros. Total loans rose by 4.5 billion euros in the first quarter compared with the final three months of 2017, driven by corporate lending and residential mortgages. Other banks that sold shares this year include Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse Group AG and UniCredit SpA, which raised a combined 25 billion euros. Banco Santander SA sought another 7 billion euros when it announced the acquisition of struggling rival Banco Popular SA this month.

Spain's Santander launches Popular rights issue at 19 percent discount

JESÚS AGUADO REUTERS | JULY 4, 2017

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain’s Banco Santander on Monday launched a 7.1 billion euros ($8.07 billion) rights issue at a price of 4.85 euros per share, a move it had flagged last month when it took over rescued peer Banco Popular for a nominal euro. Based on Santander’s closing price of 6.002 euros on Monday, the 1.46 billion new shares will be issued at a discount of 19 percent and existing shareholders will have until July 20 to decide whether they use their preferential subscription right to buy or not into the capital increase. Banco Santander, Citigroup and UBS will act as joint coordinator for the deal, which has been fully underwritten, Santander said in a notice to Spain’s market regulator. The bank, whose shares have risen 3.5 percent since it bought Popular, said its net profit for the first half of the year would be 3.6 billion euros, up 24 percent from last year, while revenues would increase 7 percent on the period. The euro zone’s biggest lender by market value also said its core Tier-1 fully loaded capital ratio had likely ended June at 10.7 percent, compared to 10.66 percent in March. This does not take into account the acquisition of Popular, for which Santander has said it would set aside 7.9 billion euros to cover for bad property assets. It said it expected the Popular deal to increase its non-performing loan ratio to 5.4 percent of total loans from 3.74 percent at end-March, though this remain below most of its Spanish peers.

Santander Appetite Suggests Investors Are Bullish on Spain

BY ESTEBAN DUARTE AND RUTH DAVID BLOOMBERG | JULY 26, 2017

Banco Santander SA’s investors bid for more than eight times the amount of stock the lender was selling, an indication of bullish sentiment for both Spain’s biggest bank after it helped rescue a failed rival and the nation’s economy as a whole. Santander received bids equivalent to more than 58 billion euros ($67.7 billion), compared with 7.07 billion euros raised in the transaction, the lender said in a statement after markets closed Wednesday. The rights issue to bolster capital was unveiled last month as part of the bank’s plan to buy Banco Popular Espanol SA. “Taking part in the Santander sale was a good way to bet on the Spanish recovery, especially for investors who are coming back to Europe after several years away,” said Karim Bertoni, a fund manager at Bellevue Asset Management AG, which manages $8.8 billion. “The fundamentals of the Spanish economy are working in the right direction.” UBS Group AG, Citigroup Inc. and Santander were the lead banks on the share sale. Chairman Ana Botin agreed to buy Banco Popular for one euro after European authorities wiped out about 2 billion euros of the troubled lender’s subordinated debt. The acquisition makes Santander the leader in Spain, with a market share of about 20 percent, at a time when real-estate prices are recovering and Spain is estimated to grow at least 3 percent this year, almost double the pace of the euro area. Unemployment has also fallen to the lowest since 2008. “The levels of demand are amazing given the size of the deal; we have not seen it since 2000, especially when you look at deals over $1 billion,” said Javier Martinez-Piqueras, head of equity capital markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for UBS. “The market expects Santander to extract fruitful synergies from Popular acquisition and was ready to support it.” The bank’s stock climbed almost 2 percent since the rights issue was announced through Wednesday, even as the bank’s number of shares outstanding rose by 10 percent. Santander’s new equity is scheduled to start trading July 31, three days after the lender posts second- quarter results. On July 4, when it announced the terms of the share sale, it estimated first-half profit would be about 3.6 billion euros.