France

Corporate hybrid bond investors have been heavily scaled back on their recent orders for new deals, so they will have been pleased by French laboratory testing firm Eurofins Scientific's Halloween Tuesday announcement mandating for its latest deal.

Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) returned to the Swiss franc market after a four year absence on Monday, in order to refinance a Sfr250m ($250.2m) 10 year Swiss franc bond expiring in two weeks’ time — but the French agency had to pay over its euro curve for entry.

London based clearing house LCH Group has revealed that John Horkan, the head of its North American operations, will become COO of the company.

Euro corporate bond investors see RCI Banque as a frequent borrower, pricing new issues multiple times a year. But it remains a rare name for sterling investors. On Friday it sold its first bond in the currency for over three years — a bond that has already matured.

The votes are in and the scores have been calculated. Two European borrowers brought benchmarks to market last week and the BondMarker voters have rendered their verdict.

Floating rate investors were not left behind in Monday’s glut of issuance. RCI Banque, the Baa1/BBB rated car financing subsidiary of Renault, brought a seven year floater, sized at €500m no-grow.

Public sector borrowers are flocking to the green bond market, dominating the upcoming SSA pipeline as the year draws to a close.

With the benchmark corporate bond market pausing ahead of Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting, Deutsche Bank sold two sole-led sub-benchmark deals following Monday’s feast of issuance.

French food supplier Danone achieved what is believed to be the most tightly priced corporate hybrid capital issue ever on Monday.

Agence Française de Développement has placed a €205m clip maturing in 2037, exceeding the length of its previous longest trade in the currency by five years.

Two more public sector borrowers are set to add to the flurry of socially responsible investments dominating the upcoming SSA pipeline late in the year.

After a stream of successful repricings in the leveraged loan market this week, French call centre operator Webhelp is set to refinance its term loans for the second time this year and could shave a further 25bp off its financing costs, according to sources.