Crédit Agricole

FCA Bank, the Italian car finance bank, joined US company Sysco in issuing a euro corporate bond on Tuesday, despite turbulent market conditions — and like Sysco, achieved a good result.

Investors’ thirst for stock in Dassault Aviation, the maker of Mirage and Rafale fighter jets, was evident last March when Airbus sold €1.76bn of it in a block trade. It was clear again on Thursday night when Airbus launched a two-pronged monetisation of its entire remaining 23.6% stake.

French retailer Fnac is assigning allocations to the 17 banks that joined its €1.35bn loan in syndication, with another lender added to the deal this week.

Block trade activity built steadily in intensity this week, reaching a crescendo on Thursday evening with a burst of deals including Airbus’s exit from Dassault Aviation. Also out on Thursday were Apax’s clean-up of Auto Trader shares and a block of shares in Spanish property company Colonial. Deutsche Bank was on almost every deal.

The European Central Bank's asset purchase programme allowed some issuers to grab cheap funding this week but uncertainty surrounding the freshly launched corporate programme was less helpful for one French issuer.

Île-de-France was able to tighten pricing on a green bond by 5bp from initial thoughts while still overshooting its target size this week. Bankers away from the deal said it was more a sign of the maturity of the green bond market than about any one issuer or bond.

Amid a hail of equity capital markets deals on Thursday evening, Airbus launched a €2.1bn sale of all its remaining shares in Dassault Aviation, using a €1bn exchangeable bond and block trade of about €800m. That came after Valeo had sold a $450m equity-neutral convertible earlier in the day, and as two other block trades were in the market.

Cades more than doubled its minimum size target for a euro benchmark tap on Thursday, as the European Investment Bank also printed a large euro tap.

The French government is open to using its “soft power” to help the green bond market, as it did when it assisted in establishing the Euro Private Placement (PP) market. But tax or regulatory capital incentives are unlikely at the moment, reports Jon Hay.

Cegid has launched €365m of loans for its buyout, at a 25 times multiple, by two investment firms. One of the buyers was set up by the former chief operating officer (COO) of Goldman’s investment banking unit in Japan.

Mexican cement producer Cemex sold €400m of euro denominated bonds on Wednesday as the company’s liability management policy brought it popularity with fixed income investors.

Mexican cement manufacturer Cemex on Wednesday followed in fellow high yield issuer Braas Monier’s tracks with a significant tightening in pricing on its offer.