France

French lender La Banque Postale came to the market on Wednesday with its second ever senior non-preferred deal, undeterred by the July 4 holiday in the US.

Crédit Agricole and Münchener Hypothekenbank (MuHyp) found good demand for their covered bonds on Tuesday, but it was Crédit Agricole’s transaction that really stood out by virtue of its size and maturity, which until now had been viewed with trepidation.

Société Générale on Tuesday announced that it had agreed to buy Commerzbank’s equity markets and commodities business (EMC), including market-making flow and products trading as well as exchange-traded fund (ETF) subsidiary ComStage.

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.