France

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.

Strong short end dollar demand led a host of issuers to print tight deals this week, including one debut. Investor appetite is expected to stay strong, but bankers are sceptical that there will be much supply.

Since the market returned from its summer break, no corporate bond issuer had printed a new deal with a tenor longer than 12 years before Wednesday. However, on Wednesday French water and waste company Suez Environnement pushed through to 15 years with a €500m trade.

On Thursday RCI Banque, the financing arm of Renault, brought the corporate bond deal count to 10 for the week, but was the only benchmark issuer in the market on the day. Danish logistics company DSV debuted in euros with a sub-benchmark deal.

UK telecoms group Virgin Media was in the market for a £200m add-on of its 2024 receivable financing notes on Monday. By Wednesday, it had sold £450m of the deal, proving that demand is not restricted to the high yield debt market for euros, where three more deals were under way.

Tobam has hired Frédéric Jamet as head of trading and co-head of research. Mr Jamet will oversee equities, fixed income, forex and assets. He will be based in Paris but will manage teams on the continent and in Dublin.

Tobam, the Paris-based asset manager, has appointed Frédéric Jamet as head of trading and co-head of research. He had been an investment adviser at State Street for 11 years.

Since the market returned from its summer break, no corporate bond issuer had printed a new deal with a tenor longer than 12 years. However, that changed on Wednesday when French water and waste company, Suez Environnement pushed through to 15 years with a €500m trade.

Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit have sold their stakes in Eramet, the French mining and metallurgy company, which they had acquired as a result of the debt restructuring of the Carlo Tassara vehicle in 2016.

Synlab, the French clinical services provider, achieved tight pricing on Tuesday for its leveraged loan. That bodes well for a September deal pipeline that has swelled to over €5bn. But bankers cautioned small deals may still have to fight for investor attention against large offerings like Stada’s €2bn loan.