France

Senior deals from BPCE and Erste Group Bank this week benefitted from enthusiastic investor support amid a shortage of supply in the asset class.

As Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) returned to the sustainability bond market on Tuesday to sell its second bond in the format, fellow French agency Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (Cades) mandated for its own sustainability bond debut.

Electricité de France has reopened the equity-linked bond new issue market in EMEA with a huge €2.4bn green convertible bond, alongside a €2.1bn hybrid capital issue.

French agency Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) hit screens on Monday afternoon with its second ever sustainability bond, following its debut in the format last year.

Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (Cades) has mandate a pair of banks to help it structure its new social bond programme.

BPCE’s seven year benchmark issued on Wednesday was subscribed more than six times and priced flat to the curve. The "overwhelming" demand caught leads off-guard and suggests eurozone issuers can now price deals with negative new issue premiums (NIPs) for deals with a restricted size.

Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (Cades) is setting up a social bond programme to help finance an increasing deficit in France’s social security system.

Supply and demand for senior financial institution bonds was lukewarm this week, as issuers and investors favoured higher yielding products amid healthy market conditions. FIG deal arrangers are predicting that the trend is set to continue and that issuers will favour capital trades.

Agence Française de Développement is hoping to publish a broader thematic bond framework in the next couple of months to include the issuance of social-labelled debt alongside green bonds.

French equity capital markets are having another subdued year. Just €8.77bn has been raised so far across IPOs, block trades, rights issues and convertible bonds, according to Dealogic data.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW), one of the largest owners of shopping malls in the world, is considering a large rights issue to reduce its leverage as the retail industry grapples with the economic fallout of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

FIG market participants expect a smooth return to euro bond issuance from next week, with bankers and investors now set up to facilitate deals where ever they may be.