France

The Bel Group, the French cheese company behind brands Babybel and The Laughing Cow, has become the first company to issue Euro private placement (Euro PP) notes with sustainability-linked margins, following in the footsteps of the loan market, the Schuldschein market and subsequently the bond market.

La Mondiale gave investors a rare chance to put money in restricted tier one (RT1) ranks this week. The bond was oversubscribed by more than 10 times but the insurance company paid a hefty premium to do the deal, according to one source away from it. However, one of the leads disagreed and said the bond was priced “probably inside fair value”.

BPCE and Banca Farmafactoring launched senior deals this week, with both issuers enjoying healthy receptions to their offerings. BPCE’s non-preferred mandate drew over €2.75bn of orders and the Italian issuer saw its preferred bond attract €850m at the spread level.

The French government, Caisse des Dépôts and La Banque Postale have signed an agreement in principle for the transfer of the majority of Société de Financement Local’s capital to Caisse des Dépôts.

Caisse Francaise de Financement Local (Caffil) has mandated leads for a roadshow to present its new green covered bond framework that, unlike its peers, is secured on public sector assets.

La Banque Postale (LBP) took advantage of a rare rise in yields to issue a positive yielding covered bond on Monday. Its tiny return was enough to ensure success and stood in contrast to the negative-yielding deals issued last week that could have been hit by European Central Bank’s deposit tiering, said bankers.

Crédit Agricole launched a non-preferred senior bond on Monday in green format, attracting investors who put in over €2.3bn of orders at guidance.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress French agencies have made in their funding programmes at the start of the fourth quarter.

The branding may be on the way out, but there are plenty of reasons to be encouraged about the potential for real progress in the next phase of the Capital Markets Union.

NIBC Bank and Axa SFH issued two tightly priced 10 year covered bonds on Tuesday. The French deal was initially slow to build, in contrast to the Dutch conditional pass through (CPT), which got an extra boost because of its positive yield.

AXA Home Loan SFH has mandated leads for a 10 year deal that is expected to be launched in the near future.

Verallia, the French glass manufacturer, has closed the books on its IPO with the final guidance suggesting an offer price above the bottom of the range, despite difficult equity markets.