France

The chair of the influential UK Treasury select committee, Nicky Morgan, told a conference of derivatives bankers, lawyers and regulators, that despite the threat of “serious problems” for cross-border derivatives contracts in a Brexit no-deal scenario, she was “reasonably confident that a no deal scenario will not cause the whole sector to fall over”.

La Banque Postale (LBP) won plaudits from rival bankers for its comfortably oversubscribed €750m covered bond which was priced with a modest new issue concession, despite the challenging 10 year tenor, competition with other agency supply and, most importantly, a much reduced order from the Eurosystem.

French electricity utility EDF sold the first hybrid corporate bond deal in the euro market for more than two months on Tuesday, as it launched a tender offer for its existing hybrids with the aim of maintaining its existing volume of outstanding bonds.

Unédic will bring a 10 year euro benchmark on Wednesday that SSA bankers are confident will avoid the fate of some of last week’s deals at that point of the curve.

Bain Capital is preparing to test whether sentiment towards French IPOs has improved post-summer, by floating Consolis, the concrete producer, on Euronext Paris.

Eutelsat, the French satellite operator, would have been hoping for similar conditions to the previous week when it announced an investor call ahead of its first corporate bond deal in more than two years. The atmosphere had changed however by the time the deal was marketed on Tuesday.

Financial services veteran Marshall Bailey has been appointed chair of LCH Group, the clearing firm majority owned by London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).

Agence France Trésor will increase its use of short-term debt markets after France’s growing deficit — outlined in a government budget statement on Monday — resulted in a nearly €30bn increase in its financing requirements.

Société Générale targeted the 10 year part of the curve on Monday, continuing a busy month of issuance for the French bank.

Crédit Agricole attracted strong demand for its four and 20 year two part covered bond on Friday, partly reflecting the prudent choice of tenors.

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The euro public sector market for 10 year deals encountered a steep sell-off in secondary and underperformance in primary this week, as investors take a cautious approach as the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing stimulus comes to a close at the end of the year.