AFD successfully issued a new 1 billion euros bond maturing on April 3rd, 2040

This new transaction is the third syndicated transaction of the year for AFD after its 2 billion euro 10-year issuance in sustainable format and 1 billion dollars 5-year issuance also in sustainable format, both executed in January.

Following this transaction, AFD has completed around 50% of its EUR 9bn funding programme of the year. This is also AFD’s first 15yr syndication since Sep 2023 and the tightest spread vs OATs achieved by AFD in EUR syndicated format since 2016.

Samia Ben Mebarek, Deputy Head of Funding and Market Operations of AFD: “We are very pleased with the outcome of this transaction, at a point in the curve that is very important for AFD and where we have been absent in 2024. The more stable market conditions over the past weeks allowed us to benefit from this window for an execution under optimal conditions. Our comeback on this maturity has been very well absorbed by our investors to whom we are grateful for their support.”

Transaction highlights:

The EUR 1 billion transaction offers a final spread of 15 bps over the OAT curve, equating to an annual re-offer yield of 3.934% and a re-offer price of 99.341%, with a coupon of 3.875%.

Execution and allocations:

The announcement of the transaction with guidance and book opening was announced on Wed 26th March at 08:55 CET, targeting an intraday execution given the busy primary market in the French issuers space. 

Guidance was released at OAT+19bps area for a EUR 15-year benchmark size. The book increased rapidly, reaching EUR 2.9bn (including EUR 300m JLM interest) by 10:35 CET and allowing AFD to revise the guidance to OAT+17bps area (+/- 2bps ‘will price in range’). Despite the spread tightening, books were in excess of EUR 2.75bn (including EUR 300m JLM interest) at 11:20 CET, at which point the decision was made to fix the spread at OAT+15bps and close the books at 11:45 CET. With the orderbook exceeding EUR2.9bn (including EUR 300m JLM interest) at final spread, and thanks to the high-quality demand, the transaction was launched for a final size of EUR 1bn at around 12:15 CET. The allocations were released around 13:25 CET and the transaction priced at around 14:10 CET, with a coupon of 3.875% and a final yield of 3.934% which translated in a re-offer price of 99.341%.

The quality of the order book is reflected in the typology of investors allocated: asset managers were allocated 53% of the final size, insurances and pension funds 27%, banks and private banks 17%, and finally 3% were allocated to other investors. In terms of geographies, French accounts amounted to 49% of allocations, followed by Germany/ Austria with 21%, Southern European investors with 20%, UK with 8%, other Europe 1% and others 1%.

Transaction details:

• Issuer: Agence française de développement
• Ratings: AA- (S&P, negative) / AA- (Fitch, negative)
• Transaction Size: EUR€ 1 billion
• Issuing Date: March 26th, 2025
• Settlement Date: April 3rd, 2025
• Maturity Date: April 3rd, 2040
• Re-offer Price: 99.341%
• Coupon: 3.875%, annual Act/Act ICMA
• Annual Re-offer Yield: 3.934%
• Final Spread: 15 basis points vs OAT curve
• Listing: Euronext Paris
• Joint Lead Managers: GSBE SE / HSBC / NATIXIS / NOMURA / SG