France

Intesa Sanpaolo and BNP Paribas hurried to make use of strong market conditions this week, building blowout order books for a pair of new senior deals in socially responsible formats.

Two senior French equity capital markets and coverage bankers who left Société Générale two months ago have joined arch-rival BNP Paribas.

Ermewa, a train lessor owned by France's state-owned railway company SNCF, is set to sell private placements to a collection of six institutional investors — none of which are from France.

BPCE appealed to a wide range of investors by adding a green element to its preferred senior bond on Tuesday. The trade was met with hefty orders, even though investors are showing signs of winding down for the year.

Two French public sector agencies have closed their borrowing programmes for the year below their planned size, with one agency cutting short its funding by almost a third.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress French agencies have made in their funding programmes as we approach the end of November.

The successful IPO of Française des Jeux, the French gaming company that runs the national lottery, this week gave encouragement to government plans to privatise more state assets. Sam Kerr reports.

Covered bond spreads were holding steady on Thursday as bank traders lighten their balance sheets amid modest secondary market buying from the European Central Bank (ECB), ahead of Crédit Agricole and Nordea’s inaugural green transactions and Raiffeisen Bank International’s vanilla debut.

Caisse de Refinancement de l’Habitat (CRH) returned to the covered bond market on Wednesday to issue a €1bn seven year covered bond, but attracted €1.4bn less demand than for its €1bn 10 year, issued in October.

CNP Assurances won healthy demand for a green tier two capital bond issue this week, as insurance companies begin to embrace the idea of printing capital instruments as socially responsible investments.

The sterling public sector bond market was alive on Tuesday as the UK sold the penultimate syndication of its financial year and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations returned to the currency for the first time since January 2018.

The IPO of Française des Jeux, the French gaming company that runs the national lottery, is set to close this week and equity capital markets are already eyeing up the next big sale from the French state.