France

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.

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.