French Sovereign

KfW and Ville de Paris grabbed the attention of investors at the opposite ends of the euro curve on Tuesday in what has been a thin week for issuance in the currency by public sector borrowers ahead of the expected arrival of the EU’s first syndicated bond under its Support to Mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency (SURE) funding programme next week.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Monday, October 12. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services

Agence Française de Développement has unveiled a new broader thematic bond framework tied to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which will allow it to issue social and sustainable bonds alongside its existing green bonds.

Unédic will follow up this week’s eight year social bond with another two social bonds to wrap up its 2020 state guaranteed funding programme.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress French agencies have made in their funding programmes in early October.

Green, social and sustainable issuance has dominated the supranational and agency bond market for a whole month, consistently outpacing conventional supply. This week proved another extremely strong one for the asset class.

Rating: Aa2/AA

Unédic returned for another social benchmark on Thursday, adding to the slew of successful French agency SRI-themed paper.

Another slew of socially responsible SSA deals hit screens on Wednesday, all achieving impressive size and healthy order books, showing the strength of the market in euros for the borrower class.

Société du Grand Paris plans to steam ahead with funding as it announced a doubling of its green EMTN programme and a substantial increase to its 2020 funding programme to help prefund the financing for the next three years of the Grand Paris Express project.

Green, social and sustainable issuance has dominated the supranational and agency bond market for a whole month, consistently outpacing conventional supply. That trend looks set to continue with three SRI deals already on screens.

Now that SSAs are back to pricing at the spreads they offered before coronavirus hit, central bank investors are pushing back and reducing their orders.