France
-
Electricité de France has extended and amended its €4bn revolving credit facility to link it to environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, as green-centric loans continue to gain traction among borrowers. -
On Monday, French supermarkets group Carrefour made its second visit to the corporate bond market of 2018, once again in the wake of a period of volatility. However, the company’s timing proved to be good as it was able to tighten pricing 15bp from initial price thoughts.
-
French postal operator La Poste saved the corporate bond market in Europe from registering a blank week when it sold its first green bond on Friday. Despite the negative sentiment that had pervaded the market throughout the week, the company paid a new issue concession at the lower end of the range paid by deals the previous week.
-
The French government has taken further steps to rationalise its various public sector lending institutions with the transfer of a controlling stake of SFIL to Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation (CDC), a move that should theoretically help lower public spending.
-
Bankers in the corporate bond market still have a number of deals on their pads to try to execute ahead of the end of 2018. None was successful this week, but that hasn’t dented their ambition.
-
Société Générale followed BPCE into the covered bond market on Tuesday, also taking the opportunity to pre-fund ahead of what many market participants expect to be a busy start to 2019.
-
BPCE returned to the covered bond market on Monday to issue a €1bn eight year deal. Although the new issue premium was modest, the slightly tricky tenor may have deterred some investors and the subscription ratio was the lowest BPCE has experienced in four years.
-
-
-
A French public sector borrower has appointed HSBC as sole arranger for its Euro Medium Term Note programme, as it prepares to make its debut in the bond markets.
-
-
French toll road operator APRR had been quiet in 2018 by its own standards, but it sold its first corporate bond deal of the year on Wednesday with a €500m long 11 year trade. It paid a low new issue premium for the deal, but lost a number of orders along the way.
