France

Caffil found good demand for a tightly priced €750m 20 year covered bond on Tuesday — the longest maturing deal issued by a core European bank so far this year. Hamburger Sparkasse was able to launch an eight year Pfandbrief benchmark in the same window, also without giving away much of a premium.

Atos has sold most of its remaining shares in Wordline, the French payments company, via an accelerated bookbuild.

French video games developer and accessories company Nacon is attempting to tap into growing investor interest in the games development sector, with an IPO on the Paris Bourse.

Caffil mandated lead managers on Monday for the longest core European covered bond of the year so far. The deal takes advantage of the surge in demand for absolute return following a plunge in yields that has taken most of the covered bond market into negative yielding territory. Bankers are also hopeful that Nordic covered bond supply will emerge this week.

Rating: Aa2/AA/AA

Caisse de Refinancement de l’Habitat (CRH) managed to attract demand of more than €6bn for a two part eight and 15 year transactions issue on Tuesday, while Société Générale subsequently issued a €1bn 10 year green covered bond flat to its curve with demand of €3bn.

DBV Technologies, the French biopharmaceuticals company that specialises in treating allergies, has successfully completed a $153m growth capital raise, despite market volatility earlier in the week owing to fears over the spread of corona virus in Asia.

French fashion house Isabel Marant made its high yield bond debut this week with a €200m dividend recap deal.

Korean Housing Finance Corporation (KHFC) issued its first €1bn-sized covered bond on Wednesday and priced the deal inside fair value. At the same time, Société Générale issued a €1bn 10 year green covered bond flat to its curve with eye-catching demand.

France printed a €5bn 2052 benchmark on Tuesday, opting for an aggressive pricing strategy and keeping to a more restrained size than its typical €7bn.

Caisse de Refinancement de l’Habitat (CRH) managed to attract demand of more than €6bn for its two part eight and 15 year transactions issue on Tuesday, with the bonds pricing tighter than where BPCE recently issued similar deals and with considerably more demand — despite a 22bp plunge in yields and with consistent demand from the European Central Bank.

Greece and France mandated banks on Monday for new benchmark offerings at the long end of the curve, the former bringing its longest bond since the eurozone debt crisis. The sovereigns are taking advantage of a sharp rally in core and peripheral eurozone sovereign yields, partially engendered by a flight to quality over the coronavirus scare.