Natixis

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.

So far this week, euro corporate bond investors have had to choose between three tranches from an individual issuer. On Wednesday, they had a choice of three issuers, with different ratings and offering different tenors.

Euro conditions are excellent for public sector borrowers, with Spain pulling in a nearly €30bn book for an €8bn 10 year — which bankers away from the trade said indicated a high presence of quality investors — and KfW raising €5bn after picking a seven year deal over a shorter tenor. Another pair of issuers are now looking to take advantage.

Ghana Cocoa Board held a successful roadshow in London on Friday for its annual cocoa harvest loan financing, according to a banker on the deal.

On Tuesday, Gecina, the French property company, latched onto the latest trend for issuance in the multi-tranche European corporate bond. The triple tranche €1.5bn deal will be used to refinance part of the bridge facility used by Gecina to acquire Eurosic.

Most new bond issues in Europe this week have been multi-tranche offerings, with issuers benefitting from investor appetite to buy longer tenors for greater returns. Safran, however, bucked that trend with a pair of short dated floating rate notes.

Calls are growing louder for sovereigns to pull their weight and assume a leading role in the development of the green bond market. But, as was demonstrated at panels in Euromoney’s Global Borrowers & Bond Investors Forum this week, many of them are reluctant to take up the SRI baton, write Lewis McLellan and Sharon Kimathi.

Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), the Paris transport authority, printed its inaugural green bond on Thursday, selling a €500m no-grow into a thrice oversubscribed book and pulling the price in 5bp from guidance.

A syndicated loan for Gunvor Singapore has been allotted, with more than 20 banks joining the mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners at the end of general syndication.

Two more dual tranche bond deals were priced in euros on Wednesday. BP followed a similar path to previous issues this week, printing eight year and 12 year tranches. However Safran, the French defence company, printed two year and four year floating rate notes.

Arabtec Holding, the United Arab Emirates’ largest listed construction firm, said on Tuesday its rights issue was fully subscribed, raising Dh1.5bn ($408m) for a recapitalisation.