The past year has seen Societe Generale play a crucial role in central and eastern Europe’s financing markets, led by Philippe Madar, head of corporate coverage for Europe. It is top of Dealogic’s mandated lead arranger rankings for regional syndicated loans in the awards period. Its market share in loans was almost twice as high as the next ranked bank, and it was also involved in some of the key bond deals during the awards period.
SocGen’s longstanding development of its sustainable finance business is adding to its advantages as a financing bank, as the region seeks to accelerate its green transition.
One deal that points to SocGen’s work to bring forward sustainable finance in the region is the €500 million Schuldscheindarlehen loan it arranged for Czech power company CEZ in February 2023, a deal the bank says was the region’s first sustainability-linked SSD, as well as the region’s largest ever.
SocGen was also joint bookrunner on the €500 million inaugural green offering by Czech railway company Ceske Drahy in October.