Debt issued by State-owned Etablissement Public Industriel et Commercial (EPIC), which takes stakes in industrial and commercial companies on behalf of the French government, was listed on MTS France on Friday, April 4.
The €4 billion 3.375 per cent April 25, 2008 bond issued by the ERAP vehicle owned by EPIC met the listing criteria of the French electronic fixed-income market whereby eligible non-government issuers have to commit to publicly issue a minimum outstanding of €3 billion within the first year of its admission.
Nine primary dealers have so far expressed their commitment to make prices for the issue, namely Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, CDC Ixis, Credit Agricole Indosuez, Deutsche Bank, HSBC-CCF, JP Morgan, Natexis Banques Populaires and Societe Generale.
“The deal was seen to be ambitious, given that ERAP is a newcomer to the market,” says Anne Duthilleul, President of ERAP. “However, we were able to meet the challenge despite the difficult international situation. Thanks to the listing on MTS France, where ERAP’s first line is quoted transparently in the secondary market, our security sees good liquidity, thus meeting investors` expectations.”
The listing of the ERAP security on MTS France also made it available for trading on BondVision, the MTS Group’s multi-dealer to client market, ensuring its distribution to institutional investors.
Trading activity on MTS France continue to increase significantly with March volumes reaching €27.5 billion, 50% higher in comparison to the same period of last year.
MTS France is the company managing the electronic trading platform for French government bonds and the securities of CADES (La Caisse d’Amortissement de la Dette Sociale), C R H (La Caisse de Refinancement de l’Habitat) and the recently introduced ERAP. MTS France is part of the MTS Group, which includes EuroMTS, EuroCredit MTS, MTS Amsterdam, MTS Belgium, MTS Espana, MTS Finland, MTS German Market, MTS Ireland, MTS Italy, MTS Japan and MTS Portugal. The Group also includes BondVision, regulated Internet-based multi-dealer-to-client market.