France

A French agency and a Belgian sub-sovereign are preparing to issue their first bonds.

Crédit Mutuel Arkéa sold a seven year non-preferred senior note on Thursday, in a market where investors are thirsty for supply. The €500m deal attracted €2bn of orders — demand that even surprised the arrangers, given that funds are still ignoring growing risks around a no-deal Brexit.

Westpac and Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) kicked off the new quarter on Monday with large euro benchmarks that were priced flat to their curves.

Total, the French oil company, achieved a flat new issue concession on its €1.5bn hybrid bond on Wednesday, according to bankers away from the deal, as investors swarmed into the book in search of yield.

The SSA green bond market looks set for a busy few weeks, with the Dutch sovereign and Instituto de Crédito Oficial (Ico) primed to print debuts following SNCF Réseau’s tapping its green paper on Thursday.

SNCF Réseau reopened its December 2047 green bonds for a €250m tap on Thursday, with the issuer bumping up the liquidity of its long dated debt.

Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (BFCM) and Group BPCE profited from favourable issuance conditions to bring new senior trades to the euro market this week, though bankers say that borrowers have had to start paying premiums to investors again.

RCI Banque followed Volkswagen Financial Services' triple tranche bond issue on Monday with its own two-part issue on Wednesday. Both car finance banks, as very regular issuers, are unlikely to command the absolute tightest pricing relative to their secondary curves, but demand has also cooled somewhat this week, compared with the avid tone of recent weeks. Nevertheless, pricing tightened a long way.

Total, the French oil company, issued a €1.5bn hybrid capital bond on Wednesday, at the same time as launching a tender offer to buy back some of its €2.5bn call February 2021 and €1.75bn call May 2022 hybrids.

Despite some concerns over the shaky credit backdrop that surfaced last week, BPCE attracted a comfortably oversubscribed order book for its tightly priced €1bn six year senior non-preferred on Tuesday.

Crédit Agricole attracted strong demand for its larger than usual public sector backed covered bond on Thursday, with the strong take-up in stark contrast to its previous issue.

Air France-KLM, the Franco-Dutch airline, on Wednesday issued a new €500m convertible bond due in 2026. The deal was repriced in the issuer’s favour after long-only convertible funds piled in, following a drought of new supply this year.