Société Générale

Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager, is seeking a valuation of €7bn to €8.76bn in its IPO, the bookbuild for which was opened today (Monday November 2), and will sell a 2% stake to Agricultural Bank of China. Goldman Sachs has joined the top line of the deal.

Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has named the banks for the $400m four year pre-export facility it signed last week, one of only a handful of Russian loans this year.

Nordea Bank received strong demand for its first tier two debt in euros since 2012 on Monday, as the primary market remained otherwise empty.

The Export-Import Bank of Korea (Kexim) is testing investors’ appetite for a dollar bond, its first since receiving a credit boost from Standard & Poor’s in September.

China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGNPC) has wrapped up its second dollar deal of the year, using a keepwell agreement this time around rather than a direct guarantee. Despite the less investor-friendly structure, the company saw a huge following and managed to price the notes with little new issue premium.

Issuers and investors were baffled this week by Standard & Poor’s decision to remove equity credit from hybrid capital bonds issued by 14 corporate borrowers — a decision that almost comically summed up the often self-referential, circular and abstruse reasoning that has driven the asset class’s history.

African Development Bank brought the solitary dollar benchmark of the SSA market this week, opting for a two year deal — which may become a sweet spot as the US Federal Reserve turns hawkish.

It was a week of firsts for the socially responsible investment sector, with several issuers bringing innovations or printing record sized deals.

Amundi’s IPO has found a favourable reception in investor education, the company’s CEO, Yves Perrier, said today.

Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône, the French motorways group, won a €4.9bn order book for a €500m eight year no-grow bond issue on Thursday, as investors returned in force to the primary market.

Three issuers launched covered bond benchmarks in euros this week, down from nine in the previous week, as borrowers anticipated an improvement in market conditions and lower new issue concessions.

The belly of the curve was the place to be this week for public sector borrowers in euros — but any other benchmarks before the end of the year are likely to be further out the maturity curve.