CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre Acts as Legal Advisor to HSBC France for the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region’s Bond Issue

CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre acted as legal advisor to HSBC France, lead manager, in arranging the recent bond issue by the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.

The €52-million issue of 11-year bonds was priced to yield 4.15% and placed with German insurance companies and other institutional investors.

Since the beginning of the financial crisis, the PACA region, like many other French local authorities, has been concerned with diversifying its sources of financing, particularly as bank liquidity has tightened. Tapping the bond market offers an alternative solution for raising funds that is at once competitive and transparent.

The recent issue was placed in just a few hours on excellent financial terms. Its success demonstrates that investors, particularly outside France, are confident in the credit quality of the PACA region’s long-term debt issues, which have been rated AA by Fitch. It also confirms the appeal of the region’s signature, even at a time of extreme market volatility.

The prospectus for the issue was filed with French securities regulator AMF on 27 January 2012 and the bonds began trading on the NYSE Euronext Paris stock exchange on 1 February.

The CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre team included Marc-Etienne Sébire, Capital Markets Manager, assisted by Rosetta Ferrère and Valérie Charreton (for the capital markets aspects) and François Tenailleau, Partner, assisted by Kawthar Ben Khelil (for the public law aspects).

For CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre, this new bond issue by a French regional authority follows on from a large number of other transactions carried out in recent months by government agencies or local authorities, such as the €4-billion EMTN programme set up by Oseo SA and underwritten by Oseo EPIC, Oseo SA's €1-billion inaugural bond issue and the €500-million EMTN programme set up for the Pays de la Loire region.

For further informations, please contact:

CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre
Florence Jouffroy - +33 1 47 38 40 32
Laetitia Mostowski - +33 1 47 38 40 74

NewCap (Agence de Presse)
Nicolas Merigeau- +33 1 44 71 94 97