France

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.

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.