milan jan 10 reuters  unicredit crdimi on tuesday met strong demand for a 1 billion euro 11 billion senior bond when it became the first italian bank to brave sharply higher funding costs driven by rising interest rates unicredit placed a sixyear senior preferred bond at an annual coupon of 48 it said in a statement a year ago it had sold a bond with the same maturity at 0925 the bond pays a spread of 190 basis points bps over the fiveyear midswap rate that is significantly lower than an initial indication of 220 bps but it compares with 85 basis points last year both bonds have a onetime issuer call at year five giving unicredit the option to redeem it unicredit said demand totalled 285 billion euros from more than 200 investors funds bought 62 of the issue with banks including private ones taking another 16 and insurers 12 italy and france each took roughly a quarter of the issue followed by britain with 15 unicredit bank ag acted as sole bookrunner and lead manager bnp paribas mediobanca natwest and santander acted as joint lead managers