France

Aviva was met with strong demand for a tender offer this week, prompting the firm to buy back £200m more bonds than expected and increase the size of its debt reduction targets.

Rating: —/AA/AA

A pair of French agencies hit the market on Wednesday, pulling off impressive deals ahead of the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday, where investors hope to hear promises of increased support.

Bouygues, the French industrial group, sold a 3.23% stake in French rail company Alstom in Paris on Tuesday night, attracting strong demand for the deal.

BPCE attracted good demand for its second dual tranche covered bond of the year, which included a rare 20 year portion. The deal showed that investors are so far impervious to the recent rise in rates.

Barclays won plaudits for steering a 21 non-call 20 tier two into an extremely tight pricing level this week, following earlier examples from the large French banks. It accompanied its deal with the sale of some long dated senior paper.

Banks and investors’ claims to be acting on climate change appear to clash with the financing they still provide in the real economy, research showed this week — such as plans to increase fossil fuel production and consumption, even in the UK and France.

This week's funding scorecard looks at the progress French agencies have made in their funding programmes at the end of February.

Société Générale tapped into strong demand for 20 year tier two debt in the dollar market this week, following examples set by BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole earlier in the year.

BNP Paribas was nearly seven times subscribed for a long call additional tier one (AT1) this week — in its third dollar deal of the year.

Crédit Agricole has picked banks to run a planned senior preferred Panda bond, its third outing in the format. An investor call has been scheduled for next week.

The Spac craze that has swept US stock markets has spread to Europe with a new vehicle called Pegasus set to be listed in Amsterdam. The Spac is led by former UniCredit CEO Jean-Pierre Mustier, LVMH founder Bernard Arnault and Tikehau Capital and is expected to prompt a wave of new issuance, according to sources speaking to GlobalCapital.