France

French election anxieties dropped out of derivative markets with astonishing speed this week, as centrist pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron’s first round election showing set him on course for the French presidency.

French and European periphery covered bond spreads were tighter on Monday following the result of the French presidential election first round vote. Bankers have urged issuers to take advantage of the bounce to secure funding.

A strong showing from Emmanuel Macron in the first round of the French election has been greeted as an “overwhelmingly positive development” by those in capital markets, according to a head of SSA DCM, and provides an exceptional backdrop for the European Financial Stability Facility’s expected benchmark.

Risk appetite has returned to the corporate bond market after independent centrist Emmanuel Macron came out on top of the first round of voting in the French presidential election on on Monday morning.

Emerging market debt was tighter across the board on Monday morning, after a favourable outcome in the first round of the French presidential election spurred a rebound in core market asset prices.

Following several months of apprehension in the run-up to Sunday's first round vote in the French presidential election, French banks can now look forward to better issuance conditions and lower funding costs as they build towards their regulatory capital requirements.

The leveraged finance market in Europe has shared in the cheerful sentiment across markets on Monday morning as the first round of voting in the French presidential election suggested centrist Emmanuel Macron was the favourite to win the run-off in two weeks’ time.

Fears of a far right victory in the French presidential election receded on Sunday night after Emmanuel Macron won the largest share of the vote to make it into the second round alongside Marine Le Pen, the National Front leader.

Unibail-Rodamco has signed today its green loan, one of the first syndicated facilities to offer the borrower a pricing benefit if it hits sustainability targets. The loan was increased twice in syndication after being oversubscribed, from €500m to €600m and then to €650m.

Hard on the heels of Unibail-Rodamco’s ground-breaking green loan, believed to be the first large corporate financing to give the borrower a pricing benefit if it hits sustainability targets, Koninklijke Philips, the Dutch health technology group, has signed a similar €1bn loan linked to its sustainability rating, writes Jon Hay.

The stakes have rarely been higher for a French election. When French voters head to the polls on Sunday, it may be to determine the fate of the eurozone.

Uncertainty over upcoming European elections could make short term debt investors “run to the sidelines”, said a commercial paper banker.