France

Barcelona-headquartered paper company Lecta is appealing to bondholders as it tries to strengthen its capital structure. Its bonds are now trading in the 30s while the CVC-sponsored company has fully used its revolving credit facility and is running out of external sources of financing.

Edenred, the French provider of corporate vouchers, has reopened the European equity-linked market after the summer with a €500m sale of convertible bonds due in 2024 that attracted more than 100 investors, according to sources close to the transaction.

Deutsche Hypo, Erste Group and Credit Agricole SCF have mandated leads for covered bonds that are all expected to carry negative yields.

Crédit Agricole CIB has appointed Pierre-Francois Martineau as a managing director in the bank’s new leveraged and telecom finance group (LTFG) in Paris.

Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) unearthed strong demand for the first negative yielding non-German covered bond of the year, and the first with a long tenor.

Issuance is starting to resume after the summer break; however, this week a booming public market drew away investor and issuer attention from MTNs. Despite this, a range of established SSA, FIG and corporate borrowers have slipped in, with deals across core, niche and EM currencies.

Rating: Aa3/AA-/AA-

Finnish nuclear power company Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) got a warm reception from the investors on Wednesday, when it sold €550m of senior unsecured notes after a 20bp tightening from initial price thoughts.

BBVA was marketing an additional tier one bond on Wednesday, making use of the favourable conditions that other issuers have found for similar instruments in the dollar market, while BNP Paribas, Bank of Nova Scotia and Bawag kept euro investors busy.

HSBC France and Svenska Handelsbanken avoided issuing senior bonds at negative yields in a busy new issue market on Tuesday, but bankers said it was only a 'matter of time' before someone takes the plunge below 0% with an unsecured deal.

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

Equity capital markets investors are becoming increasingly focused on sustainable investments, particularly those linked to renewable energy. The strength of this demand could be tested this autumn, should Spanish renewable energy firm Zero-E choose to list.