France

The French bank has simplified its investment banking structure, ending a year of uncertainty and turning the focus of its coverage teams away from London, writes David Rothnie.

Eurex has signed up Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Banking as a member of its clearing house for interest rate swaps.

Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, the Belgian investment holding company, took advantage of Total’s strong market performance on three consecutive days to sell €651m of stock in the French oil and gas company on Tuesday night.

Crédit Agricole has upped its odds on being the first French bank to publicly issue a new type of sub-senior debt, dubbed ‘tier three’, to protect senior bondholders.

More banks are expected to bring dual tranche trades in the coming days to get a jump start on 2016 funding, with issuers distrustful of primary market conditions.

BNP Paribas’s corporate and institutional bank shone in 2015, with revenues up 13.2% compared with the previous year. And while some have criticised the bank for letting its strategy rely too much on competitor retrenchment, BNPP's head of CIB Yann Gérardin said it was already well into its strategic transformation.

Supranational and agency borrowers showed their steel once again this week, printing a series of euro deals in the face of strong volatility.

Natixis defied the grim tone of the markets in the fourth quarter of 2015 as its capital markets business reported an increase in revenues. The bank argues its results vindicate its progress towards an asset-light model, as the investment solutions business bumped up revenues.

Soitec is seeking to raise €130m-€180m through two successive capital increases, it said on Wednesday.

Bpifrance Financement sold a five year €500m bond on Wednesday as a moderate rise in Bund yields suggested calm after a turbulent open to the week.

BNP Paribas has impressive targets for cutting costs and increasing capital, after outshining some of its major competitors by posting a full year profit. But it needs to tell a compelling story about how it plans to hit them.

BNP Paribas enjoyed a 13.2% rise in corporate and institutional banking (CIB) revenues in 2015 over 2014 — and is outlining plans to gain more market share at the expense of some of its “retreating European peers”.