France

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.

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.