France

Caisse Française de Financement Local (Caffil) has launched the first negative yielding covered bond since the onset of the coronavirus crisis in Europe, after linking the use of proceeds from the deal to fighting against the effects of the pandemic.

SIX Group, the owner of the Swiss stock exchange, was in the market on Monday night with a sale of shares in French payments company Worldline. Investors poured into the deal demonstrating their appetite for high quality tech firms amid the economic ravages of the coronavirus pandemic.

Bpifrance became the first French issuer to sell a Covid-19 response bond on Friday, raising €1.5bn.

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Bpifrance is preparing to issue a bond which will be used to provide loans to companies in France to help them overcome the economic difficulties of the coronavirus pandemic.

Caisse de Refinancement de l’Habitat (CRH) issued the first big seven year covered bond since February on Thursday, attracting extraordinary demand and pricing in line with where recently issued French five year deals were trading. It sent a bullish signal to the market and came after a long series of French financial institution bonds that have highlighted just how practical and market-orientated the country’s banking sector has become.

The European Central Bank’s purchase programme will do little to aid agencies in raising cash in the commercial paper market, making little difference to rising borrowing costs and expanding programmes, according to Jérôme Margerin, head of short-term funding at ACOSS, one of Europe’s largest non-sovereign CP issuers.

Some bank treasury teams are weighing up whether to access the primary market ahead of first quarter results, with bankers suggesting they could take advantage of growing demand amid falling supply.

A measured reopening of the primary bond markets in the last month has left banks in a good place to launch new deals after first quarter results, according to FIG DCM officials.

Syctom, a French metropolitan agency responsible for household waste management in the Île-de-France region, printed its debut bond at the end of last week, selling a green bond that will go towards funding sustainable waste management projects in the Paris region.

Agence Française de Développement (AFD) will tap the dollar market this week to become the latest public sector borrower to print a bond in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

BPCE seized an opportunity to launch €1.5bn of preferred senior funding this week — an asset class that has outperformed all other bank funding products in the market in recent trading sessions.