France

Société Générale failed to match BNP Paribas for demand in the sterling market on Monday, after following its peer by launching a new non-preferred senior trade in the currency.

Caisse Francaise De Financement Local (Caffil) issued only the second covered bond of the year in a large size on Monday, pricing the deal flat to its curve. Despite the prospect of mounting covered bond redemptions, the supply outlook remains abysmal, suggesting spreads will tighten more.

French IPOs dried up last year as the Covid-19 pandemic derailed companies' plans to go public. This year is likely to be different.

Europe’s primary equity-linked market has reopened for 2021, with a debut €200m green convertible bond issued by Voltalia, the French renewable energy company.

Covered bond issuance from France is likely to be the highest from any country next year, reflecting the sheer size of the market, high redemptions and banks' propensity to use covered bonds for market funding rather than for repo funding at the central bank.

Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale (Cades), the agency responsible for financing and amortising French social debt, plans to raise almost twice as much as it did this year and more than 10 times what it had initially expected to raise in 2020 before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Cheesemaker Groupe Bel’s landmark US private placement under French law was funded this month. The company has sampled all the major sources of investment grade private capital in the recent past, having issued euro PPs and Schuldscheine before its new US PP.

Cellectis, the French gene-editing company, has launched a $100m US capital raising to help fund its research and development operations. The sector has had a record year for issuance in 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic has concentrated minds on global healthcare innovation.

France and Belgium announced borrowing programmes for 2021 this week. France is aiming for the same amount as this year, while Belgium is paring back its needs.

BPCE issued a transition bond this week to finance loans made by Natixis, its corporate and investment bank. The deal gave Natixis a chance to demonstrate the value of using a green weighting factor when allocating capital to new lending, as the mechanism helped the issuer select its assets and prove its own commitment to sustainability.

France has lined up its 2021 funding programme, looking to sell some long end syndications and to return to the green bond market for its sophomore outing in the format.

Société Générale took advantage of superlative conditions in the US dollar market at the start of the week, raising $2bn of funding with a tightly priced deal in non-preferred senior format.