France

Air Liquide and Saipem loans show that bankers and borrowers are not yet slowing down as they seek to tie up remaining bumper deals they launched in a busy fourth quarter.

Unédic and the Province of Quebec on Monday became the first issuers to print in euros since the European Central Bank disappointed market participants at a meeting of its governing council last week.

Vivalto Santé, the French private health service provider, has announced €228m of loans for its leveraged buyout by Mubadala Development Co, the Abu Dhabi Government owned investment and development company.

Agence France Locale printed its first bond denominated in dollars this week.

The European Central Bank’s decision to include local and regional debt in its public sector purchase programme is set to ease one sub-sovereign’s path to becoming an annual visitor to the public markets, according to its head of funding.

The French government sold €753.5m of shares in Safran, the French aerospace and defence group, on Monday night, in a block trade that was 1.6 times covered. But investors hoping to benefit from a favourable European Central Bank decision on Thursday were disappointed.

FIG bankers rejoiced this week as two markets that have been much maligned this year — insurance capital and sterling senior — showed enduring appeal just in time for a year end funding grab.

CNP Assurances

BPCE

Havas, the French advertising and communications company, satisfied investors' taste for unrated paper on Tuesday as it gathered an almost three times oversubscribed book for its €400m bond.

Banks can look forward to regularly pricing green bonds inside their vanilla senior curves, some FIG bankers believe, after BPCE launched the latest in a succession of tight trades on Wednesday.

Credit default swaps referencing Havas surged out this week to their widest levels since 2013 as the borrower brought a €400m bond amid a flurry of euro deals.