France

Bpifrance Financement has tapped a November 2024 line for €700m, outstripping the size of the original issue and selling into what a banker at one of the leads described as an “amazingly strong market”.

Genuine Parts Company (GPC) will issue $2bn of bonds and loans and ramp up the size of an existing revolver to fund its purchase of France’s Alliance Automotive Group (AAG) when it buys the auto parts wholesaler from private equity towards the end of this year.

Credit Mutuel Arkéa (CM-Arkéa) this week issued the tightest French 10 year covered bond in euros this year with a deal that gave funding that was cheaper than anything it had previously issued.

Artemis, the Pinault family holding company that owns €17bn of shares in Kering, the French luxury goods group, raised €383m on Tuesday with an innovative equity-neutral exchangeable bond, in which Crédit Agricole acts as an extra counterparty to investors.

Canadian car parts maker Magna International and French property company Gecina both priced 10 year deals in the European corporate bond market this week. Magna had waited two years since its last euro issue, Gecina just three months.

Three sub-investment grade borrowers printed deals in the high yield corporate bond market on Thursday using different tenors to raise a combined €1.06bn.

Engie, the French energy group, priced its second green bond transaction of 2017 on Tuesday. The triple trancher contained two green clips and took the issuer’s tally to six different green bonds. As issuers start to establish genuine green curves, they are starting to create their own sector, writes Nigel Owen.

Crédit Agricole issued a six and a half year Swiss franc bond on Thursday, opting for senior preferred in a bid to diversify towards Swiss investors.

On Tuesday, Gecina, the French property company, printed a successful €700m long 10 year bond, having sold €1.5bn of bonds as recently as the end of June to help fund its acquisition of Eurosic.

Engie, the French energy utility, priced its second green bond transaction of 2017 on Tuesday. The middle tranche of its three tranche offering extended the issuer’s green bond curve, however the longest tranche was not sold as a green bond.

SMCP, the French fashion group, has filed a document de base with AMF, the French market regulator, paving the way for its flotation on Euronext Paris.

French market regulator Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) has promoted Natasha Cazenave to head of public policy and international affairs, and replaced Guillaume Eliet, who has left to work for Euroclear.