Grosvenor and Santander trade first Spanish property derivative

Privately owned UK property group Grosvenor and Spanish lender Santander said they have carried out the first property derivative transaction in Spain. The total return swap has a maturity of two years and was based on Investment Property Databank's (IPD) main Spanish property index. Other details of the transaction, including the size of the deal, were not released.

'We see this as an important first step for the Spanish property derivatives market, and a sure sign that this market will develop along the same lines as the French, German and even the UK markets,' said Andrew Fenlon, global head of property derivatives at Santander Global Banking & Markets.

For Grosvenor, the deal was the latest in a series of firsts in derivative swaps. Its Spanish property total return swap follows trades in 2007 in Australia, Japan and Italy that were all-market firsts and followed trades in the US and UK.