France

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.

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.