French Sovereign

A remarkable start to the year for the eurozone periphery is in clear view in this month's sovereign funding scorecard. Just two months into the year, Portugal has completed more than half of its target, while Ireland is not far behind. At the other end of the volume spectrum, Spain is making good headway in tackling its €133.3bn target with 26% completed, while Italy — which has yet to sell a syndication this year — is behind on 18%.

A pair of French regional issuers could soon join a German sub-sovereign in selling long dated private placements in yen. Japanese investors are keen to push along the curve in search of yield and look beyond their usual fodder of European agencies to large sub sovereign and regional issuers, SSA Markets understands.

The rampant start to 2014 by peripheral eurozone sovereigns is clear to see in this week's funding scorecard, with the region's comeback kids Ireland and Portugal halfway and a quarter way through their funding programmes already. Spain has also made promising progress in its attempt to hit what is its largest ever funding target, with nearly a fifth of its total already in the bag. Italy will look to move into double figures from its 4% status in the coming weeks with a widely expected syndication.

The end of November finds almost every sovereign in the scorecard more than 90% funded for the year. Italy's cause was helped in no small part by a bumper €22.3bn domestic inflation linked bond at the start of the month. The UK - with a funding year running from April March - is also well on track with 70% of its programme completed.

The sovereign funding scorecard expands beyond Europe this month with the addition of Japan. The country has a whopping ¥156.8tr (€1.2tr) target this year but is well on track having raised ¥136.2tr so far.

France and the UK, downgraded by Fitch earlier this year, will probably have to wait until at least 2021 to regain their top ratings, according to a report from the rating agency released this week.

Austria, Belgium, Finland and the UK were among the European sovereigns to add to their funding totals with benchmark deals this month.

As European sovereigns gear up for a busy period of auctions in late August and September, here are the latest funding figures for selected issuers.

France, Germany and Spain held well received auctions of medium to long term debt this week. Here is a round-up of key European sovereigns' funding figures.

France and Spain brushed aside a series of bad headlines to breeze through a cluster of debt auctions on Thursday, as comments by US Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke on Wednesday night helped to boost market sentiment.

France passed its first test since losing its last triple-A rating on Friday, placing nearly €8bn of bills on Monday with just a slight increase in yields from a week ago. The sovereign is expected to sail through an auction of longer dated debt later on Thursday with similar ease, but a debt auction for Spain on the same day may be a tougher sell as investors digest the latest political scandal from the country, said analysts.

This week's funding scorecard focuses on some of Europe's key sovereigns. Next week's scorecard will offer an update on Spanish regions and gencies.