Santander has entered a new underwriting agreement with investment bank Peel Hunt.

The bank said that the deal will give both parties the scale, expertise, and finance to underwrite the UK’s biggest equity capital markets (ECM) transactions.

The agreement, exclusive to Peel Hunt’s UK clients, extends across a number of share offerings, including primary offerings like rights issues and placings to support M&A activity or bolster corporate balance sheets, as well as secondary offerings, including sell downs of large stakes by major shareholders.

Peel Hunt, which had a 14.9 per cent share of London Stock Exchange trading volumes last year, raised £3.6bn across 69 ECM transactions during 2019 and 2020.

Over the past two years, Santander has been active in European ECM, acting as Bookrunner on 23 deals with a cumulative value of €22.1 billion.

“We aim to establish Santander CIB as one of the leading corporate and investment banks in Europe, and this collaboration is an important step towards that goal,” said José M. Linares, global head of Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (Santander CIB), the wholesale investment banking division of Banco Santander. “The agreement with Peel Hunt combines our respective strengths and expertise to expand our client reach and further enhance the services we offer. We look forward to working together.”

Steven Fine, chief executive of Peel Hunt, said that the number of high-profile transactions on which the business advises and underwrites has increased as the business has grown.

“With a strong eye to the future, we are delighted to be entering into this collaboration agreement with a bank of Santander’s global reach, reputation, and commitment to UK companies, which will enhance our ability to underwrite substantial ECM transactions,” said Fine. “This landmark collaboration combines our in depth market knowledge and expertise with a powerful underwriting capability that will enable us to enhance our full service offer to our clients and further support our growth ambitions and those of the companies for whom we act.”

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