France

French car parts distributor Autodis announced an add-on of its only floating rate bond on Monday, amid higher average high yield funding costs but with investors confident that the market can cope.

Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF), which had financed the mortgage and public sector lending activities of Crédit Foncier and BPCE Group, will in future issue Obligations Foncières to refinance only the public sector assets of the BPCE Group.

Rating: Aa2/AA/AA

France plans to forge ahead with tapping its debut Green OAT rather than introducing new SRI lines, despite some investors calling for a shorter dated alternative. Craig McGlashan and Lewis McLellan report.

Sovereign, supranational and agency borrowers were out in force this week, but the second busiest week of the year for euro funding was notable for the lack of price tension on many deals.

British oil and gas company BP returned to the European corporate bond markets on Thursday for the first time in a year. Two euro tranches came 12 months after the company’s last euro offering, and a sterling tranche was its first in its domestic currency since August 2016.

Crédit Agricole has sold a Samurai bond to retail buyers, marking the first time it has participated in that market. It is in the tier two format, despite European regulators’ concern that non-institutional investors holding bank capital could prevent the effective resolution of institutions.

The shareholders of French brokerage Kepler Cheuvreux have restructured its ownership, with two new investors coming in and UniCredit increasing its stake, while others have sold out.

Public sector issuers have streamed back into the primary market in euros after being kept away by weeks of volatility. This week is already the second busiest of the year for the sector, but investors are starting to focus on where interest rates are headed.

France sold its first syndicated tap on Tuesday, adding €4bn to its GrOAT line. The sovereign will be followed in the green market by a Danish agency's sophomore offering.

France is set to revisit the SRI market, announcing a syndicated tap of its June 2039 Green OAT, or GrOAT. The deal will follow a German agency's annual green bond.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark as of Thursday's close. The source for secondary trading levels is Interactive Data.