Crédit Agricole

GAC-Sofinco Auto Finance, a joint venture between Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance and Guangzhou Automobile Corp, will hit the Chinese auto ABS market with a Rmb6bn ($854m) four-tranche transaction next Thursday, marking its largest deal so far.

Crédit Agricole CIB has issued the first transition bond to be structured according to Axa Investment Management’s guidelines for this embryonic product, published in June. The €100m private placement, bought by Axa Group, was designed to demonstrate how the market could work.

Dim sum MTN issuance from SSAs reached a record high in 2019, and the growth is set to continue next year. The renminbi’s inclusion in the IMF’s special drawing rights (SDR) basket and global bond indices will ensure growing appetite for the instrument, according to one MTN desk head.

Crédit Agricole and Santander raised a combined €3bn of 10 year covered bond funding on Wednesday, with joint demand of over €5bn. Both deals were special in their own right, with the Spanish deal paying a rare double digit spread over mid-swaps, while the French borrower’s inaugural green transaction will have drawn a rich new seam of demand from buyers with a green investment mandate.

Intesa Sanpaolo and BNP Paribas hurried to make use of strong market conditions this week, building blowout order books for a pair of new senior deals in socially responsible formats.

German nursing home firm Dorea has signed an €87m credit facility, as syndicated loan bankers say mid-market borrowers will become a bigger source of business in the coming year.

China deepened its dollar debt curve on Tuesday with a $6bn jumbo bond. With its biggest dollar deal yet, the sovereign has set a new benchmark for issuers from the country.

Akuo Energy, a French renewable energy producer, has sold €45m of green Euro Private Placements (Euro PP), as the sustainable element in the market grows.

The People's Republic of China is planning to raise around $6bn from its return to the dollar bond market on Tuesday.

Rating: Aa1/AA/AAA

Perhaps the last two public sector bond benchmark issues of the year hit screens in euros this week and, judging by their reception, the market is closing right on time.

France’s SNCF has signed a €3.5bn sustainability-linked loan, with the state-owned railway company only able to use the facility from the start of next year after the country’s reform bill is enacted.