France

Corporate bond deals are often executed on Fridays to give issuers some space in crowded weeks. However, Friday was one the busiest days of this week, with both euro and sterling investors offered long dated deals to consider.

Guarantor: Joint guarantee from Belgium, France and Luxembourg

French laundry group Elis has entered the Schuldschein market in the hope of refinancing part of a bridge facility used in its £2.2bn acquisition of UK rival Berendsen.

Citi has promoted Cecile Ratcliffe to markets head of France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Both the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and Dexia Crédit Local were able to take advantage of a strong market and cut 3bp from the spreads paid on their euro benchmarks on Tuesday.

The IPO of SMCP, the French fashion group that owns the brands Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot, is covered, one working day into the bookbuild.

The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) will launch its fourth quarter issuance programme with a new six year benchmark, sharing investors’ screens with a 10 year deal from Dexia.

Europe’s leveraged loan market was set for more than €4bn of offerings this week, as borrowers revel in friendly pricing conditions. Large facilities such as the €1bn loan for DomusVi that was launched on Monday could achieve the tightest prices, said bankers.

Issuers and syndicates in the corporate bond market are lining deals up for a four day week this week. The Columbus Day holiday in the US shouldn’t necessarily mean no deals in the European market, but a mixed tone to the secondary market means participants are erring on the side of caution.

This week's scorecard looks that the funding progress of French agencies as we move into the fourth quarter.

The leveraged loan market is showing no sign of slowing after a September filled with jumbo deals as French telecoms companies Altice and its subsidiary SFR join the fray with transactions of more than €1bn.

On Thursday, the European corporate bond markets had two new telecoms deals to consider. Iliad, and unrated French issuer, priced a seven year deal, while Telecom Italia opted for longer.