France

Barclays has taken on a former member of Deutsche Bank’s FIG DCM team in Paris.

The initial public offering of Deezer, the French music streaming business, appeared to be in jeopardy on Tuesday afternoon, after the deal’s book closed without a covered message.

The initial public offering of Deezer, the French music streaming business, had on Monday afternoon not yet received sufficient demand from investors to get done, according to a banker close to the deal.

Socially responsible investors received a fresh menu of bonds on Monday, with a borrower announcing an inaugural climate bond, a regular SRI issuer entering a new currency and an agency returning to its sustainability format.

Groupe Autodistribution, the French car parts distributor, began a roadshow on Monday for €237m of pay-if-you-can notes to fund its acquisition by Bain Capital.

Read on to see how selected French agencies are progressing through their 2015 funding programmes.

Covered bonds worth almost €7bn were issued this week but, by virtue of its size, oversubscription ratio and breadth of demand, Nationwide Building Society’s €1bn deal stood out.

The IPO of Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager, began on Monday with the launch of investor education for a deal that is likely to top €1bn.

Oberthur Technologies Group, the digital security company fully owned by Advent International, registered its document de base on Monday, as it prepares to float in Paris.

Four issuers launched covered bonds on Tuesday following the four that launched deals on Monday, doubling supply from €3bn to €6bn so far this week. By virtue of its size, Compagnie de Financement Foncier’s (CFF) €1.25bn benchmark stood out, but the level of demand was far below its previous five year even though the concession was several times larger.

Moody’s has assigned a provisional Aaa rating to €8.6bn of class ‘A’ notes to be issued by FCT Crédit Agricole Habitat 2015, a vehicle for home loans originated by 39 regional French banks belonging to Crédit Agricole.

BPCE, the French banking group, launched its first Australian deal since April, a tier two deal which attracted strong demand from investors.