France

French home equipment retailer BUT SAS on Tuesday offered a €66m add-on of its €180m secured notes suggesting it is studying the acquisition of a franchisee network.

French car maker Groupe Renault may have been the only European high yield borrower in the top 20 global capex champions’ list published by Standard & Poor’s on Monday, but car makers overall gained positions in the ranking.

French municipal lender Agence France Locale could choose a large private medium term note to return to the bond markets after the summer, following a debut syndication earlier this year.

Goldman Sachs, as stabilising agent, partially exercised on July 24 the over-allotment option of Europcar, the French car rental company that floated in Paris a month earlier.

BPCE, the French banking group, sold a €151m block of shares in Nexity, the French real estate firm, on Tuesday evening, as it continued to implement its plan to divest non-core assets.

China concerns have failed to dissuade European corporate borrowers from going about their capital markets business this week, with a number of bonds in the works and acquisition loans progressing.

Citigroup has hired Deutsche Bank’s head of equity capital markets for France to build its market share across France, Benelux and Switzerland.

Agence Française de Développement sold a dollar syndication on Tuesday, but with the latest statement from the US Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee due on Wednesday further deals are unlikely this week, said SSA bankers.

Multiple listings of ETFs could become a smart strategy for firms looking to attract a broader investor base for products sold under the renminbi qualified foreign institutional investors (RQFII) scheme. An RQFII ETF that was first listed in London was recently taken to Euronext Paris via Euroclear Bank, and Euroclear reckons the move is paving the way for others to exploit RMB alternatives.

Tobam, a Paris asset manager, is preparing to launch new funds in European credit and emerging market debt, which will bring its innovative investing approach to European fixed income for the first time.

French rail operator SNCF Réseau joined the 100 club this week and now wants to print more ultra-long debt, but investors and MTN dealers doubt demand will support it. Jonathan Breen reports.

Synlab, the German laboratory services provider, is being acquired by private equity firm Cinven. The deal will be partly funded with €1.08bn of high yield debt which was priced on Thursday.