Société Générale

A day of calm in European markets opened a window for primary issuance on Monday that French property investment company Icade seized, one day before the US presidential elections.

Syndication for the refinancing of $1.235bn of loans for commodity trader Gunvor has closed, with lenders making “significantly oversubscribed” commitments, while competitor Trafigura faces a €2bn maturity this month.

Nine banks have been mandated to arrange the financing for the leveraged buyout of Polish online marketplace Allegro, and a senior loan will be launched into syndication later this month.

Long-languished plans to centrally clear foreign exchange derivatives have been jump-started back to life, claimed dealers who are optimistic that a cleared FX options contract could be available to trade within the coming months and pave the way for further progress in the asset class.

Russia’s Domodedovo Airport on Thursday morning set initial price thoughts for a new five year dollar bond.

Hydropower firm China Yangtze Power Co debuted in the equity-linked bond market this week, raising $521.9m with a dual currency exchangeable bond — a product rarely seen in Asia. The liquid nature of the underlying stock and the credit quality of the issuer helped reel in demand, writes Jonathan Breen.

Société Générale beat expectations despite posting a 2.4% year on year decline in third quarter profit, as it offset weakness in its French retail banking unit by becoming the latest bank to benefit from increased revenues from trading fixed income, currencies and commodities.

French firm Teleperformance has completed syndication of its $1.825bn acquisition loan and may refinance part of the deal with private placements, following the example set by other French SME firms this year.

French trade fair organiser Comexposium on Wednesday joined the recent wave of refinancing offerings in the euro leveraged loan market with its own €394m offering.

Lenders in the $260m syndicated loan for Kaz Minerals have agreed to waive the net debt to Ebitda covenant in the deal for another year as lower copper prices weigh on earnings for the Kazakh mining firm.

Amid rough going for new IPOs this week, one of this year’s star IPO performers, Maisons du Monde, was back in the market on Wednesday night as the global coordinators waived the lock-up to let the leading shareholders make their first block trade in the stock. Thursday brought a substantial trade in Ferrexpo, which owns iron mines in Ukraine, which got done, though at a slightly reduced size.

Officials from the European Commission said on Tuesday they are prepared to change withholding tax rules and insolvency regimes to encourage private placement lending.