France

Agence France Trésor is about to finish deciding the scope of eligible green projects that could be funded by its green OAT issuance in 2018, and will announce this to the market by mid-January.

The green OAT issuance programme of France involves a cost to the issuer, but this has so far been compensated for by the slightly cheaper funding France can get by issuing green bonds.

Marguerite Bérard-Andrieu is leaving BPCE, having been chief executive for a year and a half. The bank's board has appointed François Riahi to replace her, from the new year.

Europe's largest property company Unibail-Rodamco announced an agreed offer of $15.7bn for the equity of Westfield Corp, the Australian shopping centre operator, on Tuesday. The deal, which valued the enterprise at $24.7bn, was the second retail property consolidation in a week as the sector comes under the M&A spotlight, writes Nigel Owen.

France is looking to syndicate an inflation linked benchmark in 2018, after announcing its funding plans for the year on Thursday.

Caisse d'Amortissement de la Dette Sociale’s funding need for 2018 will be less than half that of 2017, the French agency said on Tuesday. It also provided an update on its merger with Agence France Trésor, the French sovereign debt agency.

Unibail-Rodamco has taken out a €6.1bn bridge facility from its advisers Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, to finance its acquisition of Westfield Corp, the Australian shopping centre operator, for an enterprise value of $24.7bn.

France’s pioneering work on sovereign green bonds took another step forward on Monday, as it named the members of its green OAT evaluation council on the same day that the group held its first meeting.

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten on Tuesday printed “another great example” of what bankers said were the “tangible price benefits” of selling SRI bonds. The trade came in the same week that France tapped its famous green OAT — or GrOAT — via auction.

On Wednesday, the euro corporate bond market reminded any doubters that it was still very much open for business with five tranches totalling €3bn being priced by three well known issuers.

A senior debt capital markets banker at Crédit Agricole CIB has moved to the bank’s sustainable banking team.

Ardian and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice sold their remaining stakes in Spie, the French engineering company, on Monday night via an auctioned block trade that was priced at a tight discount to the close.