Société Générale

Belgian private equity firm Cobepa is funding its acquisition of Scalian, the engineering consultancy, with two French investment banks.

Appetite for eurozone sovereigns is showing no signs of slowing down after Ireland and Portugal joined Belgium this week in scoring their largest ever syndication order books. Several other borrowers sold euro trades on Wednesday, with more supply expected this week as the pipeline has “accelerated” ahead of next week’s parliamentary vote on the UK’s Brexit deal.

After a run of triple-B rated corporate bond issuance, A-rated names have returned to the market and paid lower premiums than the higher beta issuers had, but 10.75 years remains the longest tenor to date.

Crédit Agricole paid a small premium to investors to launch a new short-dated floating rate note on Wednesday, adding to a flurry of senior trades from French banks at the start of the year.

Yapi Kredi, the Turkish bank, has set the pricing for its additional tier one bond though eschewing a “traditional bookbuild process”.

Société Générale is strengthening its debt capital market capabilities in Asia Pacific by creating a new Japan team under Yohei Abo.

Belgium and KfW received well oversubscribed order books for 10 year euro benchmarks on Tuesday, with several public sector borrowers set to follow in the euro market this week.

Bankers have confirmed that Qatar National Bank has entered the second phase of syndication to refinance an existing €2.25bn facility due for maturity in May 2019.

Yapı ve Kredi Bankası is planning an additional tier one dollar benchmark that looks likely to be the first issue of non-sovereign international bonds from the country since April.

The European Financial Stability Facility rebooted the euro public sector market on Monday with an intraday execution ahead of what SSA bankers expect to be a busy week for supply. Belgium and KfW are already on screens for benchmark trades in the 10 year part of the curve.

Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel and Société Générale came out on Monday with euro-denominated deals in the safest part of the unsecured capital stack, as issuers adjust to a pessimistic mood at the start of 2019.

As is becoming traditional in the European corporate bond market, car finance issuers sold the first new issues of the year. The fact the market had to wait just one day was a positive, considering that the backdrop was largely unchanged from the end of 2018, when the market had been difficult to access. However, there were some warning signs other issuers will do well to heed.