France

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.

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.