France

Real money sellers were seen in recently issued Italian covered bonds on Thursday, along with some profit-taking at the long end of the French curve, which is expensive to OATs. But with German Pfandbriefe looking cheap relative to Laender, the bonds look well supported, bankers said.

Société Générale beat expectations despite posting a 2.4% year on year decline in third quarter profit, as it offset weakness in its French retail banking unit by becoming the latest bank to benefit from increased revenues from trading fixed income, currencies and commodities.

French firm Teleperformance has completed syndication of its $1.825bn acquisition loan and may refinance part of the deal with private placements, following the example set by other French SME firms this year.

French trade fair organiser Comexposium on Wednesday joined the recent wave of refinancing offerings in the euro leveraged loan market with its own €394m offering.

Nissan has done the UK a favour. By playing hardball about wanting assurances from the UK government about Brexit, it has opened the debate into one where real investments are discussed, and tough choices become apparent. The City should follow its lead.

French car parts provider Autodistribution on Tuesday opened a four day roadshow for fixed and floating rate notes in a deal set to refinance old bonds, including PIKs, and fund its acquisition of Doyen Auto.

Euronext and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) signed an agreement last month to increase the public profile of small and medium sized technology enterprises listed on both exchanges. This is the latest in a series of initiatives between the two parties which Lee Hodgkinson, Euronext’s head of markets and global sales, said is part of a strategy to bring Europe closer to China.

In the wake of Brexit, the French financial sector is taking steps to make good on the threat of chipping away RMB business away from the City of London, Arnaud de Bresson, managing director at industry organisation Paris Europlace told GlobalRMB.

Rating: Aa2/AA

Amount: €750m

Amid rough going for new IPOs this week, one of this year’s star IPO performers, Maisons du Monde, was back in the market on Wednesday night as the global coordinators waived the lock-up to let the leading shareholders make their first block trade in the stock. Thursday brought a substantial trade in Ferrexpo, which owns iron mines in Ukraine, which got done, though at a slightly reduced size.

Crédit Agricole issed a rare €500m 10 year public sector Obligations Foncières this week that was priced at the tightest spread for a French covered bond in more than a year and was the most highly subscribed in more than 18 months.