France

Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (BFCM) has sold £450m of new senior notes in the sterling market, which is enjoying its fastest ever start to a year.

The euro market is providing borrowers with superb execution — KfW gathered its largest ever book for a 10 year on Tuesday — but investors are requiring healthy new issue concessions in order to commit.

Chief executive of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Scott O’Malia on Monday said that the trade body was preparing French and Irish law governed ISDA master agreements to be “ready for all eventualities” in the wake of Brexit.

Caffil managed to attract a strong order book for its eight and 15 year covered bonds issued on Tuesday, largely because it paid careful attention to size, starting spread and tenor.

French telecoms operator Orange sold a new 12 year trade on Tuesday and paid a low new issue premium for the €1bn deal. The deal was one of three that priced on Tuesday, but only seven new issues for the year so far, meaning investors are keen to put their money to work.

KfW and Dexia Crédit Local are first out the blocks in what looks set to be a busy euro market for public sector borrowers this week.

Crédit Agricole SFH took advantage of curve steepness to issue a €1.25bn eight year which, unlike recent 10 year deals, managed to attract strong demand from bank investors buying for their liquidity portfolios.

Michelin, the French tyre maker, crowned an interesting first week of the year for Europe's equity-linked bond market on Friday with a $600m equity-neutral convertible bond due in 2023.

A thinly oversubscribed €1bn 10 year covered bond issued this week by Compagnie de Financement Foncier could mark the beginning of the end of the bull run in covered bonds. Bill Thornhill reports.

Investment grade corporate bond market players only had to wait one day for the first new deals of 2018. Renault and BMW both brought new paper to market on Wednesday, selling a total of €2.75bn of bonds with little premium.

Compagnie de Finacement Foncier (CFF) was unable to attract a swell of demand for its 10 year, possibly due to the tight starting spread. In contrast, yield hungry investors flocked to ABN Amro’s mega-sized 15 year offering.

LCH Group and pan-European exchange Euronext have revealed their completion of a share swap, in which the exchange took a 2.3% stake in LCH Group in return for an 11.1% stake in France-based clearing house LCH SA.