France

A group of French semiconductor maker Soitec’s senior managers have sold €98m worth of shares that vested as part of a three year stock compensation scheme that matured earlier this year.

French telecommunications company Altice France added another €1bn to its bond package, taking advantage of the historically issuer-friendly market conditions. The tranches were finalised after the European Central Bank announced a new round of stimulus, pushing down bond yields across the board.

KfW and Bpifrance were the first public sector borrowers out of the blocks in euros following last Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting in which it unleashed its new comprehensive stimulus package.

Bouygues, the French construction, telecoms and media group, has sold almost half its stake in Alstom, one of the largest manufacturers of rolling stock in the world, after the European Commission blocked a plan to merge the company with Siemens’ trains business earlier this year.

JP Morgan this week issued a €400m cash-settled exchangeable on LVMH, the French luxury goods conglomerate, in its latest synthetic outing, raising cheap funding while possibly hedging a derivatives transaction.

Caisse de Refinancement de l’Habitat, the specialist French covered bond issuer, has overcome regulatory hurdles and will issue covered bonds following a roadshow.

Specialist French lender My Money Bank SCF (MMB) returned to the covered bond market on Monday to issue its second deal, which attracted a more diverse and larger order book than its first. A positive yield helped, but so did the issuer’s investor relations effort, according to a lead manager.

The Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), made its Uzbekistani som debut this week to take advantage of funds flowing into EM currencies thanks to low rates in dollars. Elsewhere, euro investors are looking at the ultra-long end of the SSA market.

Credit Suisse has recruited a banker from Deutsche Bank to join its equity capital markets solutions origination team in Paris.

French glass packaging company Verallia’s registration document has been approved by AMF, France’s market regulator, paving the way for a €4bn IPO on Euronext Paris.

Erste Group and Crédit Agricole competed for covered bond investors’ attention at the long end of the curve on Wednesday with a rise in yields helping boost demand, particularly for the Austrian deal which started with a generous spread. At the same time Deutsche Hypo issued a three year.

France’s benchmark index the CAC 40 has outperformed all of its Western European peers bar Italy this year, leading to hope that this autumn’s French IPOs will be well received by investors, despite the wider macroeconomic and political uncertainties stalking European equity markets.