France
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Luxury cosmetics company L’Occitane has agreed to buy UK skincare brand Elemis for $900m, in what will be its biggest acquisition since it listed at the turn of the decade. -
French construction and concessions group Vinci on Friday sold its first corporate bond since announcing it had agreed to acquire a majority shareholding in Gatwick airport. It was the issuer’s second public bond issue in three months after more than five years without one.
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Guarantor: Kingdom of Belgium (51.41%), Republic of France (45.59%) and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (3%)
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Public sector dollar issuance has had a slower start to the year than usual — in part because of super strong conditions in other currencies — but SSA bankers are confident the strength of the deals that did come this week will boost the pipeline.
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Crédit Agricole reached considerable size expectations and raised €1.5bn of 10 year covered bond funding on Monday. A day later Caffil raised a not insignificant €1.25bn with a well subscribed two part six and 15 year offering.
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Five French financial institutions sold preferred senior bonds in the capital markets this week, as the country’s lenders helped the market to a fast start to the new year.
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Rating: Baa1/BBB+/BBB+
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French toll road operator APRR started its funding plans earlier than previous years when it sold a €500m nine year deal on Thursday. Its November deal was its only transaction in 2018, but even in busier years it has waited until May before getting started.
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The public sector euro market’s thundering start to the year stayed noisy on Thursday as a quartet of smaller issuers from across the continent printed oversubscribed deals.
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France’s ESI Group has signed a €40m syndicated loan, with the virtual prototyping company adding to its banking group through the deal.
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Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank were the latest European banks to take advantage of this week's calmer markets to raise senior preferred debt.
