Société Générale

Tuesday had been a slippery day in the European corporate bond market, as a fall in equities caused two new issues to find underwhelming demand — a knock-on effect that has not happened for a long time. But by Thursday that was all forgotten. Four deals were launched, three of them triple-B rated and three of them 10 years, and all went well.

Société Générale is ready to allocate more capital to its investment banking and lending businesses. The capital-light “originate-to-distribute” model which has prevailed as European banks have deleveraged is still delivering returns at SG, but the bank is willing to use more balance sheet to fuel the business.

Acquisitions announced on Monday by Siemens, Merck and Arkema marked the continuation of a wave of European investment grade acquisitions, with varied outcomes for syndicated loan financing.

Hana Bank brought to market what is only the second ever dollar denominated new-style bank capital deal from South Korea on Thursday, September 25. The bank is offering a RegS/144A 10 year bullet tier two issue.

Will Smiley, former co-head of ECM syndicate for Asia Pacific ex Japan at Goldman Sachs, has relocated to the bank’s London office.

Orange, the French telecoms company, showed the potential of the hybrid capital market for financing mergers and acquisitions today, when it raised €3bn towards its €3.4bn acquisition of Jazztel, just eight days after announcing the bid. Orange did not use a bridge loan for the deal.

Société Générale has hired Andy Liu as head of DCM for China. The position is one of two new roles created by the French bank to boost its debt capabilities in Asia.

Vallourec, the French oil and gas pipeline maker, issued a €500m 10 year bond on Tuesday after building a book of €3.1bn, despite a jittery day for the equity market.

Monday was a soft day for equities and credit spreads, but BP had little if any hesitation in launching its second large euro bond of the year. The UK oil company’s deal was the eighth big dual tranche deal in euros since BMW set the fashion on August 26.

Abengoa, the Spanish renewable energy and engineering firm, announced a roadshow on Monday for a green bond – the first in euros for a high yield issuer.

Hana Bank has mandated six banks to work on the second US dollar denominated Basel III tier two bond from a South Korean lender with investor meetings scheduled to start on September 22.

Laurent Bouchilloux has been promoted to head of infrastucture project finance in Société Générale's Paris office. He took over from Hervé Le Corre on September 1.