French Sovereign

Read on to see how selected benchmarks are faring in secondary. Trading levels given are bid-side spreads versus mid-swaps and/or an underlying benchmark as of Thursday's close. The source for secondary trading levels is Interactive Data.

France returned to the primary debt market with its first syndicated deal in more than three years on Wednesday, drawing a hefty order book for inflation linked bonds despite concerns over further disinflation in the eurozone.

This week's scorecard covers the funding progress of sovereign issuers, with every issuer with a funding year that matches the calendar year either over the halfway mark or approaching it. Next week's scorecard will deal with European supranationals and agencies.

This week's scorecard covers the funding progress of sovereign issuers, with Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands and Portugal all over the halfway mark on their programmes for the year. Next week's scorecard will deal with European supranationals and agencies.

Two deals this week highlighted the appeal of setting up SRI programmes. A pair of very different issuers appealed to new sets of investors showing that the growing asset class offers plenty to issuers — even if investors won’t pay up.

Région Île-de-France highlighted the appeal of socially responsible debt on Monday when heightened international demand for a 12 year SRI bond allowed the region to sell its biggest ever deal.

Ireland's return to bond auctions last month helped the sovereign reach nearly 60% of its funding target for the year. Across the Irish sea, the UK started its financial year with a £2.577bn auction - and a reduced funding target of £128.4bn.

Région Île-de-France will roadshow a new 12 year green sustainability bond next week, which bankers believe could be the first syndicated green bond from a regional government.

This week SSA Markets provides funding updates on selected French borrowers. Read on to see which borrower is nearly three-quarters done for the year already.

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.