Société Générale

Société Générale said on Wednesday that Didier Valet, deputy chief executive of the bank and former head of CIB, would be leaving the group — a move driven by US authorities' investigation into the manipulation of Libor.

KfW built a towering book in the five year part of the euro curve on Wednesday with a deal that SSA bankers away from the trade said probably attracted heavy French demand. The agency’s choice of printing just €4bn from a book of over €8bn should ensure a tightening of its curve, they added.

A clean-up trade in shares of Veolia Environnement, the French environmental services company, by Qatari Diar, an arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, failed to clear on Monday night, leaving Société Générale long the stock.

Sanofi, the French pharmaceutical company, priced on Wednesday the largest corporate bond deal so far in 2018, an €8bn six-tranche deal. The company regularly uses a multi-tranche approach to the market, but this was its largest deal so far in any currency.

A unit of Puma Energy is in the loan market, seeking $1.1bn across three tranches, according to a banker who received the invitation.

China’s Tianjin Rail Transit Group Co (TRT) and Chengdu Xingcheng Investment Group Co both dipped into the euro market on Tuesday, with the former printing a green bond.

Public sector borrowers found buckets of dollar demand on Tuesday, as a French agency sold its largest ever benchmark in the currency and a supranational printed a trade at the upper end of its historical size range. Another supra is lined up to test whether that demand will hold on Wednesday.

Spanish telecoms company Telefonica has announced the sale of its latest hybrid new issues while also tendering for several of its outstanding hybrids. After over a month since the last benchmark euro hybrid issue, investors contributed to a large order book.

Yapi Kredi printed its $500m five year senior bond on Monday with a new issue premium of 20bp-25bp — a hefty but necessary concession, vindicated by the deal trading around re-offer on Tuesday.

South Korea’s Kookmin Bank returned to the Formosa bond market on Monday, raising $300m from a floating rate note (FRN). Taiwanese investors’ eagerness to buy Korean financial credits helped the issuer price a relatively cheap deal versus an international transaction.

A pair of public sector borrowers are bringing short end dollar benchmarks as ever widening swap spreads support trades at that part of the curve.

Private equity firm CVC and local investor Alba are funding their €3.8bn acquisition of 201m shares in Gas Natural, the energy group, with a €1.9bn loan, which is set to become one of the largest Spanish financial deals of the year.