France

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress French agencies have made in their funding programmes as the year comes to a close. A few agencies have also set their funding targets for 2019.

China has rolled out trade concessions to the United States, signalling a willingness to negotiate before the trade war gets out of control. But it has also increased its rhetoric over the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer in Canada.

France looks set to be in breach of European Union budget rules after president Emmanuel Macron promised a set of concessionary measures in an effort to quell the violent protests of the last few weeks. While, by the absolute letter of the law, France’s breach will not be as bad as Italy’s, such a situation will hardly do much to stem the rise of populism or boost the credibility of the EU.

France’s Nexans has amended its €600m revolving credit facility, as loans bankers reiterate that many amend and extend exercises happening now are refinancing operations by a different name.

Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale will have a slightly higher funding programme in 2019 than 2018, the agency said this week, as French government borrowing costs rose.

Due to the lack of new issuance for over a week in the European corporate bond markets, the vote of no confidence in UK prime minister Theresa May was the talk of both the buy and sell sides on Wednesday morning. But there has been little effect on the market itself so far where political developments in other European states are more of a concern.

Société Générale is working to offer its clients direct clearing capabilities in the eurozone by the end of the year, as it launches an offering in Paris for listed and OTC derivatives.

Net covered bond supply from France is likely to fall in 2019, which should support spreads. However, French banks were among the most active users of the the European Central Bank's Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO), which, as it starts to mature, will need to be refinanced - and the covered bond market could be poised to provide some of that funding.

French postal operator La Poste saved the corporate bond market in Europe from registering a blank week when it sold its first green bond last Friday. On Wednesday, Deutsche Post followed its peer’s lead by announcing a deal with the same tenor.

Chinese and French banks may take advantage of a new Luxembourg green covered bond law, where the cover assets are linked to renewable energy, according to an official at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE).

Edenred, the French operator of employee benefit schemes, discovered on Thursday that investors still have cash to put to work in the corporate bond market, even though eight deals had been priced in the first three days of the week and the end of the year is in sight.

Crédit Agricole came to what one banker called an "apathetic" market on Wednesday with a senior preferred issue from its new green bond framework, but did not have to offer a large premium to sell €1bn of notes.