Crédit Agricole

In the first subordinated FIG deal of the year, Crédit Agricole Assurances, the wholly owned insurance subsidiary of Crédit Agricole SA, has launched an eleventh hour attempt at getting grandfathering for hybrid capital deals that aren’t compliant with new Solvency II capital rules.

Danone, the French foods group, became the first European corporate bond issuer of 2015 on Wednesday, and attracted exceptionally strong demand for a €550m five year floating rate note and a €750m 10 year fixed rate bond.

A consortium of ten banks has signed an HK$4.46bn triple tranche facility for CVC sponsored Hong Kong Broadband Network. The loan received much attention when agent JP Morgan first started sounding out banks, as some bankers felt it was too aggressively structured and with too loose covenants.

The so-called Euro private placement market, which came to life in France in 2012, has reached a total of €3.9bn of issuance this year - its biggest year yet.

The Russian economic crisis this week boosted participation in a tender offer for Evraz's 2015 bond. Investors accounting for $278m of Evraz's $576.7m 2015 notes agreed to a company buyback of the note at just over par.

French engineering and construction services firm Spie this week cut margins on its €625m 4.5m year bullet term loan E and let another bank onto its arranging ticket.

Louis Dreyfus Commodities Metals Suisse, a subsidiary of Louis Dreyfus Commodities, has signed an $800m dual tranche loan with a group of 46 banks.

Two subsidiaries of Gunvor Group have signed a $1bn revolving credit facility with a syndicate of 25 banks, down from 38 on its $1.5bn loan a year ago.

GTech, the Italian gambling equipment maker, has further reduced its bridge facility for the acquisition of US competitor International Game Technology, down to $6bn.

Russian steelmaker Evraz Group is offering to buy back its 2015 bonds at just over par. While the offer is reckoned to be on the tight side, analysts expected investors will jump at the opportunity as Russian risk continues to increase.

A $3.2bn piece of Tata Steel’s $5.6bn multi-trancher has attracted a whopping $1.089bn in commitments during general syndication. The response follows a successful senior phase, which saw eight banks pile in.

Moody’s has downgraded the corporate rating of Spie, the French engineering and communications services firm, from B1 to B2 in response to a €2bn refinancing exercise.