France

Korian, the French group that provides care homes for the elderly, on Wednesday became one of the very few companies to have issued a convertible bond structured to gain equity credit under IFRS.

Three shareholders in French electronics firm Soitec pocketed €124m from an overnight equity block trade on Tuesday, which came on the heels of a 100% rally in the stock since the start of the year.

Agence Française de Développement has passed its first capital markets test since asking for permission to change its banking licence, raising €1bn with a 15 year deal on Wednesday. The choice of tenor may have helped alleviate any immediate problems over its status switch, said a person close to the deal.

So far this week, euro corporate bond investors have had to choose between three tranches from an individual issuer. On Wednesday, they had a choice of three issuers, with different ratings and offering different tenors.

Euro conditions are excellent for public sector borrowers, with Spain pulling in a nearly €30bn book for an €8bn 10 year — which bankers away from the trade said indicated a high presence of quality investors — and KfW raising €5bn after picking a seven year deal over a shorter tenor. Another pair of issuers are now looking to take advantage.

On Tuesday, Gecina, the French property company, latched onto the latest trend for issuance in the multi-tranche European corporate bond. The triple tranche €1.5bn deal will be used to refinance part of the bridge facility used by Gecina to acquire Eurosic.

Carmila, the retail property owner and manager owned by Carrefour, launched its capital increase today, seeking €503m of new capital, after its merger this month with Cardety.

French family office Caravelle has been granted exclusivity to buy Tiama, a provider of services to the glass packaging industry, from shareholders EQT Credit II, Kartesia, European Capital and Omnes.

French fashion group SMCP is ready to pursue a listing again, after canning its IPO plans last year in favour of a sale to China’s Shandong Ruyi Technology Group Co.

The final fortnight of June has been seen as the last busy window for new issuance before the summer. This week lived up to its billing with over €11bn-equivalent of new deals priced and syndicate desks see no reason for conditions to change next week.

Most new bond issues in Europe this week have been multi-tranche offerings, with issuers benefitting from investor appetite to buy longer tenors for greater returns. Safran, however, bucked that trend with a pair of short dated floating rate notes.

Market participants are clamouring for sovereigns to join France and enter the green bond market. It would likely help the market, but would it help the environment?