Merrill Lynch has conducted two block trades and an overnight bookbuild for National Australia Bank (NAB), raising a total of approximately A$976m (€602m).

The unusual move to hand a raft of deals to one bank all at once comes as NAB attempts to shore up its bank balance in the wake of escalating losses following unauthorised currency options trading. According to sources close to the deal, NAB decided not to run a formal bidding process but negotiated with Merrill directly as it was looking to sell its shareholdings as quickly as possible.