France

Rating: A3/BBB+

French property company Gecina latched on to the latest trend for issuance in the multi-tranche European corporate bond on Tuesday, with a short dated floating rate tranche following other issuers to have done the same recently.

Barry Callebaut, the Belgian-French chocolate company now headquartered in Switzerland, has joined the growing, but still very new, trend of companies taking out syndicated loans with margins tied to their sustainability performance.

Bankers always expected June to be a busy month for corporate bond issuance after a quiet May and before the summer slowdown. Thursday ensured the pace of issuance was maintained with four issuers selling seven tranches.

French media content producer Banijay is funding the acquisition of Castaway Television with its first ever bond. It has scheduled pricing for Friday, rising the tally of potential high yield bond sales above €2bn for this week.

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.