Crédit Agricole

Hexaware Technologies, an Indian software company majority owned by Baring Private Equity Asia, has mandated nine banks for a $600m take-private loan.

The European Commission’s best practice guidelines for the financial sector in handling the coronavirus crisis may challenge the safety mechanisms embedded in covered bonds, which have become fundamentally overvalued — especially in countries like Italy where payment holidays have been widely taken up — thereby instigating a sell recommendation from analysts at Barclays.

Dollar bonds sold by Bank of Communications and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China widened in the aftermarket on Tuesday after both firms took a tight approach to pricing.

Crédit Agricole won an appeal against the European Central Bank on Wednesday against fines levied against the treatment of some of its instruments as common equity tier one (CET1) because the central bank had provided “inadequate reasons” for penalising the French lender.

Rating: Aa2/AA/AA

Following the sale of its third syndication of the year this week — a €3bn inflation-linked bond — France does not expect to bring any more public benchmarks in 2020.

Insurance companies saw a favourable window of opportunity this week to sell subordinated debt. Assicurazioni Generali, Crédit Agricole Assurances and CCR Re benefited from the supportive backdrop to raise tier two bonds.

Bankinter continued the additional tier one (AT1) supply spree on Thursday, becoming the third issuer to launch this type of bond this week and receiving praise for the 6.25% coupon it achieved.

France hit screens with a 15 year inflation-linked bond on Wednesday, raising €3bn with its first syndicated linker since 2018, capitalising on growing demand for inflation-linked products.

CCR Re, the French reinsurer, debuted in the bond market with a tier two on Wednesday, executing a strong transaction on the back of intensive investor engagement combined with favourable market conditions.

TCL Technology Group Co sold its maiden dollar bond on Tuesday, getting a 10 times oversubscribed book at its peak thanks to a standby letter of credit (SBLC) from Bank of China.

France hit screens on Tuesday to announce a new long-dated inflation-linked benchmark at a time when market participants are bracing for the return of inflation due to the vast amount of monetary stimulus and spending by governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic.