France

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French engineering services company doubled its initial launch size to just €450m, joining the growing proportion of Schuldschein deals closing over €200m. But, some question whether the growing number of larger companies accessing the German private placement market might affect funding chances for smaller SMEs

Investors in public sector dollar deals have found themselves forced to accept brutally tight pricing as issuers drive in spreads to round off their funding programmes.

Corporate bonds that are executed on Fridays are often brought then to give issuers some space in crowded markets, but in an otherwise quiet week French electricity grid operator Réseau de Transport d’Électricité had little competition for investor attention last Friday as it printed the longest dated deal of the week.

French car hire group Europcar opened the high yield bond primary market on Monday with new debt to fund the acquisition of Spanish peer Goldcar, demonstrating how little investors are worrying about the escalating crisis between Catalonia and Spain over the former's push for independence.

Vice-chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) Anneli Tuominen has said that the body could issue a warning on Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a method of capital raising using cryptocurrencies on a blockchain.

The €549m IPO of SMCP, the French fashion group, is set to be priced at €22 a share, valuing the business at €1.57bn.

CMA CGM, the French container liner, priced its first bond issue on Tuesday after improving on its triple-C ratings. Investor demand was enough for the issuer to double the size of the deal.

French shipping group CMA CGM will launch a sub-benchmark sized bond on Tuesday, a week after S&P Global upgraded the rating of its unsecured note issuance from CCC+ to B-, bringing it into line with Moody's B3 rating.

Agencies from the Netherlands, France and Germany are set to come to market on Tuesday for short dated dollar deals.

French engineering services company Akka doubled its initial €200m launch size to just over €400m. With rising participation from Asian and European commercial bank lenders, issuers from the technology sector are finding higher levels of interest in the Schuldschein market.

Shareholders in Solutions 30, the French software services company, came to market on Thursday night with an equity block trade, intended to increase liquidity in the shares and give new investors the opportunity to buy into the name.