Compagnie de Financement Foncier yesterday (Tuesday) took its dollar benchmark issuance to $6.3bn (Eu4.56bn) since the beginning of last year, selling a $1.5bn three year 144A/Reg S deal.

The issue was priced at 85bp over mid-swaps, in line with guidance of the 85bp area, equivalent to 111bp over Treasuries.

Paul Dudouit

A syndicate official away from the leads said that the transaction appeared to have gone quite well.

“They did $1.5bn and the fact that they got a deal done is good,” he said. “We had their September 2015s at 94bp/87bp and their April 2013s at 64bp/57bp, so there is quite a steep curve in the US.

“The level of 85bp is equivalent to about 43bp in euros, which was where Crédit Agricole did their three year, although I thought that was on the cheap side. Anyway, the dollar level is largely equivalent to what they’d do in euros, so there is no big cost for them, even if they have been issuing a lot in dollars.”

Paul Dudouit, head of medium and long term funding at CFF, highlighted the growing profile of the institution in the US.

“Last year we issued $4.8bn in dollar benchmarks and with this transaction we now represent 20% of the existing covered bonds outstanding in the US, so we are definitely one of the key players on this market,” he told The Covered Bond Report.

Leads Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Citi, JP Morgan and Natixis opened the books at 0800 NY time and the transaction was priced at 1400. The leads built an order book of $1.8bn, comprising more than 60 accounts.

“Compared with our first dollar benchmark, this is quite an important increase in the number of investors,” said Dudouit. “This is a result of the marketing we have done.

“We are now marketing to tier two accounts and we see more and more interest from these, which is very important in terms of diversification, not having only the big players involved.”