French Sovereign

Aéroports de Paris seized the opportunity presented by slightly stabler markets on Wednesday morning to price a €500m 10.5 year bond with what one banker said was its lowest ever coupon on such a long bond.

Infra Foch, a new company formed to purchase French car park operator Vinci Park, has mandated banks for a European bond roadshow next week.

Aéroports de Paris seized the opportunity presented by slightly stabler markets today to price a €500m 10.5 year bond with what one banker said was its lowest ever coupon on such a long bond.

The French state sold a €584m stake in telecoms firm Orange on Tuesday night, finding success on a busy evening for blocks.

Wesfarmers, the diversified Australian retail, chemicals, energy and insurance group, attracted a €1.2bn book for its seven year bond on Tuesday, allowing it to increase the size from an expected €500m to €600m while still paying a new issue premium of 5bp or less.

French building and infrastructure firm Spie began bookbuilding on its IPO on Monday, which will help it to reduce debt.

Tuesday had been a slippery day in the European corporate bond market, as a fall in equities caused two new issues to find underwhelming demand – a knock-on effect that has not happened for a long time. But by Thursday that was all forgotten. Four deals were launched, three of them triple-B rated and three of them 10 years, and all went well.

Tuesday had been a slippery day in the European corporate bond market, as a fall in equities caused two new issues to find underwhelming demand — a knock-on effect that has not happened for a long time. But by Thursday that was all forgotten. Four deals were launched, three of them triple-B rated and three of them 10 years, and all went well.

Disappointing secondary and primary markets are leading to increased caution among ECM investors, two deals showed this week, as accounts enter large, liquid and well known stocks that are easy to escape in a crisis — and disregard smaller ones.

Orange, the French telecoms company, showed the potential of the hybrid capital market for financing mergers and acquisitions on Wednesday, when it raised €3bn towards its €3.4bn acquisition of Jazztel, the Spanish cable and mobile company, just eight days after announcing the bid. Orange did not use a bridge loan for the deal.

Vallourec’s bond issue may have gone well on Tuesday, but for the other corporate issuers in euros and sterling it was a much rougher ride. Accor launched a €150m tap and RCI Banque a £250m sterling three year, but neither managed to tighten pricing from their initial thoughts.

Acquisitions announced on Monday by Siemens, Merck and Arkema marked the continuation of a wave of European investment grade acquisitions, with varied outcomes for syndicated loan financing.