Ciments Francais (Ciments), the French cement maker, signed a euro1 billion ($935.38 million) Euro-MTN programme on May 17 and became the fourth issuer from that sector to join the market in the last two years. BNP Paribas, Ciments's arranger, also arranged London Electricity Group's MTN shelf this year. Ciments's ratings from Moody's and Standard & Poor's of Baa2 and BBB respectively place it in a competitive sector of the market, and recent volatility from corporates means many investors have spurned them for higher credits. Regina Bouille, head of finance at Ciments, is unfazed however. She says: "A certain number of transactions have been done recently at good levels, and I hope the market will continue on that trend." No plans have been made for a debut deal, but French investors will already know of the issuer from its activity in the French CP market. It has a euro600 million French CP programme, which it signed in 1998, with $451.44 million outstanding off 44 trades. Bouille says the marketing of the facility will be done once plans for a trade, likely to be in euro, are in place. She says: "We have no plans yet to start using the programme, so any roadshow, as normally happens in the bond markets, will be done just before we begin to trade." The dealer panel consists of the arranger, ABN Amro, CDC IXIS Capital Markets, Credit Agricole Indosuez, Credit Lyonnais, Credit Mutuel CIC, HSBC, ING Barings/BBL, Lehman Brothers, Natexis Banques Populaires, Salomon Smith Barney, SG, and Unicredit Banca Mobiliare.
May 31, 2002
