Natixis

Gemalto, the French internet security company, launched its first bond issue today, raising €400m at attractive terms, as it finances its $890m acquisition of SafeNet.

Holding d’Infrastructures de Transport, the holding company of Société des Autoroutes du Nord-Est de la France, the French motorway operator, returned to the bond market after a two and a half year break on Wednesday for a €450m deal.

The US FIG market returned to normality after the deluge of the previous week’s supply subsided.

Covered bond issuers priced 10 benchmark sized deals this week, raising €11bn on the back of an aggregate €26bn of demand. Average order book sizes were boosted after the European Central Bank announced last week its intention to proceed with a third covered bond purchase programme.

The covered bond market passed another milestone this week with Caisse Française de Financement Local (Caffil) and Compagnie de Financement Foncier (CFF) attracting book sizes that were reminiscent of the high yielding peripheral transactions seen a year ago, but at spreads well through mid-swaps.

Lagardère, the unrated French media group, returned to the bond market on Wednesday with a successful €500m issue that showed how it has repositioned its credit as an investment grade issuer.

Lagardère, the unrated French media group, returned to the bond market today after a two year absence with a successful €500m issue that showed how it has repositioned its credit as an investment grade issuer.

Delachaux, the French industrial company, has launched a €765m loan that will refinance debt and enable it to pay a dividend to shareholders.

The subordinated debt market for European financials was back in full swing with four deals out on Monday morning boosted by the European Central Bank's policy decisions made last week.

Europe’s corporate bond market burst into full scale action on Wednesday, after two weeks of sporadic new issuance. A €3bn deal from Sanofi, the French pharmaceuticals company, was joined by €1bn from Toyota Motor Credit Corp, €500m from property company Foncière des Régions and yet another small deal from Volvo (see separate stories).

Europe’s corporate bond market burst into full scale action today, after two weeks of sporadic new issuance. A €3bn deal from Sanofi, the French pharmaceuticals company, was joined by €1bn from Toyota Motor Credit Corp, €500m from property company Foncière des Régions and yet another small deal from Volvo (see separate story).

Ask LatAm DCM bankers about their competition, and Natixis is not the first name on many lips. But the head of the French bank’s one year-old Latin America platform reckons 12 months of solid progress making a mark on the lending league tables have put the institution in a good position to make the most of recent hires across several product areas.