French Sovereign

Agence Française de Développement (AFD) will tap the dollar market this week to become the latest public sector borrower to print a bond in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress French agencies have made in their funding programmes by the middle of April.

Agence France Trésor, the French sovereign debt office, has published a second draft budget bill for 2020, which will see it issue much more debt than previously announced.

Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark and bid-yields from the close of business on Tuesday, April 14. The source for secondary trading levels is ICE Data Services.

Agence Française de Développement (AFD) was the latest public sector agency to head to the euro market this week as it raised €1.5bn on Wednesday with a 10 year benchmark. While the deal was fully subscribed, the order book was not huge and the pricing did not tighten from guidance, indicating that the market may be slowing.

Agence Française de Développement raised €1.5bn on Wednesday with a 10 year Reg S benchmark. While the deal was fully subscribed, pricing was not tightened from guidance, indicating that the frothy moves of the last three weeks may be slowing.

Caisse Centrale du Crédit Immobilier de France (3CIF) came to market with a five year bond on Monday, paving the way for fellow French agency SNCF to follow up with its green debut.

Public sector borrowers returned en masse to the primary bond market this week, with many selling new issues with an explicit focus on providing emergency financing in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The SSA market appears to be well and truly up and running, with four SSA borrowers hitting screens for new bonds in euros on Thursday, pulling in an impressive €11.5bn with deals from three to 30 years

Unédic, the French unemployment agency, will have a substantially bigger funding programme for 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to its chief financial officer, Jun Dumolard.

Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations plans to proceed with funding outside of its core currencies of euros and dollars in the coming months, in spite of the volatility.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress French agencies have made in their funding programmes by mid-March.