France

French telecoms operator Orange ensured the cobwebs were blown off the corporate bond market on Tuesday when it launched the first multi-tranche offering of 2019, which included the longest tenor of the year to date and the year’s first sterling corporate bonds in its four tranches.

Caffil has mandated joint leads for a two part covered bond which, at the long end, is expected to offer a juicy spread.

Crédit Agricole managed to reach considerable size expectations and raise €1.5bn of covered bond funding in the challenging 10 year tenor on Monday. Although a tighter price might have been possible on Friday, the issuer’s size ambitions would probably have been thwarted.

Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel and Société Générale came out on Monday with euro-denominated deals in the safest part of the unsecured capital stack, as issuers adjust to a pessimistic mood at the start of 2019.

The corporate bond market saw its second day of issuance in the new year on Monday when French multi-utility Veolia and Belgian electricity grid operator Elia sold new deals.

Banks are courting France’s Vinci to grab lending spots on the company’s £2.9bn acquisition of a controlling stake in UK airport Gatwick. A bond issue from Vinci is possible in the first half of this year.

Electricité de France, the Paris-based electricity company, raised a Rmb122m ($17.8m) one year bilateral loan through Crédit Agricole CIB (China) on December 20.

BNP Paribas has become the first European bank to put a callable non-preferred senior deal into the public market, after opening books on a new dollar deal on Thursday.

As is becoming traditional in the European corporate bond market, car finance issuers sold the first new issues of the year. The fact the market had to wait just one day was a positive, considering that the backdrop was largely unchanged from the end of 2018, when the market had been difficult to access. However, there were some warning signs other issuers will do well to heed.

The covered bond market is likely to remain equally busy on Friday as it was on Thursday with a further three deals mandated. Bankers say next week could become even more frenetic.

The European corporate bond market had to wait just one day for the first new issue of 2019. Some participants had expected volatility in the global financial markets to result in a blank first week for corporates, but finance subsidiaries of Renault and Toyota opted to start their financing for the year on Thursday.

France will be looking to syndicate its longest benchmark since May 2017 next year, the sovereign announced on Thursday.