Natixis

Not one to mince its words, Republic of Congo has said it "vigorously contests" S&P's decision to downgrade its foreign currency issuer rating to CCC on Friday.

SNCF Réseau launched its first 30 year green bond on Tuesday, following the example set by European Investment Bank at the end of June. KfW was also out in euros with a long 15 year — and more borrowers might be tempted to bring euro deals at the long end, said bankers.

Natixis has promoted from within for the newly created position of head of loan syndication for Asia Pacific, naming Daniel Klinger to the top job.

Respite from a two week old rout in eurozone government bond yields allowed two public sector borrowers on Monday to venture out with mandates for long dated euro deals. But analysts warned that the sovereign bond sell-off could have more room left to run.

Carmila, the retail property owner and manager owned by Carrefour, has bagged €503m in a capital increase, after acquiring a listing earlier in June by merging with Cardety, a smaller French property company.

The engines of sterling high yield issuance sound louder every week, with luxury carmaker McLaren and RAC Insurance adding supply to the already burgeoning sterling high yield bond market.

Leveraged loan investors have recently started to win victories on deal terms, but on Thursday French engineering firm Socotec brought confirmation that market conditions are still in favour of borrowers. However, another of this week’s deals underlined the fact that investors can sometimes succeed in getting better terms.

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French property company Gecina latched on to the latest trend for issuance in the multi-tranche European corporate bond on Tuesday, with a short dated floating rate tranche following other issuers to have done the same recently.

Natixis has announced that Pierre-Henri Denain will become global head of financial institutions and public sector coverage from July.

French media content producer Banijay is funding the acquisition of Castaway Television with its first ever bond. It has scheduled pricing for Friday, rising the tally of potential high yield bond sales above €2bn for this week.

Agence Française de Développement has passed its first capital markets test since asking for permission to change its banking licence, raising €1bn with a 15 year deal on Wednesday. The choice of tenor may have helped alleviate any immediate problems over its status switch, said a person close to the deal.