France

Crédit Agricole issued a five year senior non-preferred bond on Tuesday, attracting a robust order book and pricing flat to its curve. The deal showed investors are still “desperate to grab what they can get”, according to one FIG banker, despite increased uncertainty over the rates outlook and the outcome of French elections.

The pace of borrowing has slackened for public sector borrowers as Easter approaches but a few are still out hunting for second quarter funding.

Unédic and Austria have announced that they will sell euro benchmarks at the long end of the curve on Tuesday.

French finance minister Michel Sapin has warned British officials that London will lose its euro denominated derivatives business after leaving the European Union, saying that the bloc must be “masters” on rules that apply to its currency.

Deutsche Bank shares closed on Thursday April 6 at €15.68, well above the €11.65 subscription price in its €8bn rights issue, for which subscription closed that day.

Lloyds Bank has arranged for Unibail-Rodamco, the French-Dutch property company, what it believes is the first syndicated loan that gives the borrower cheaper funding if it hits environmental targets.

Three more IPOs reached successful conclusions on Tuesday and Wednesday, including the largest in Poland for over two years.

Fears of Marine Le Pen winning this year’s French presidential election may have receded but investors should be hoping that her loss will be to frontrunner Emmanuel Macron — and not to former favourite François Fillon.

Euronext spurned the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) on Monday by completing a preliminary agreement with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Clear Netherlands that will provide the European exchange's clearing services in commodity and financial derivatives for the next 10 years.

Renault’s financing arm RCI Banque, rated Baa1/BBB, had the primary market to itself for a dual tranche trade on Monday — a stark contrast to the more than €4bn of trades pushed through this time last week.

The brace of deals printed last week proved evenly matched under the scrutiny of the GC BondMarker voters.

Electricité de France’s €4.018bn three-for-10 rights issue has been oversubscribed, despite the continuing alarming flow of headlines about the nuclear power industry, and the approach of a French presidential election that could bring the far right to power.