The Royal Bank of Scotland is preparing to break into the French corporate bond market this year and hopes to lead manage its first public sterling-denominated and U.S. dollar-denominated private placement deals for French companies in the first half. Donald Bryden, Paris-based director general of RBS' French operations, says the firm will start to develop its euro-denominated business in the second half of this year. RBS is also in the process of hiring two senior bankers for relationship management and origination. Bryden says the new hires should be on board in the next six weeks or so. Currently, RBS has one origination banker working in Paris, Arnaud Nicoli.
Bryden says the firm will work off its strong base in leveraged finance and property finance, but going forward the bulk of its efforts will go toward strengthening its corporate banking business--especially in bond origination. "If we can do two or three substantial U.S. dollar private placements and two or three sterling and euro deals this year, that would be great," he says.