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.
Other deals that underline SocGen’s strong presence in the Czech Republic, where it owns one of the largest banks, include a €500 million senior unsecured bond from Cetin group in April 2022. SocGen was also bookrunner and arranger on a €1.85 billion forward start facility for CPI Property Group in August, after acting as global coordinator on that firm’s inaugural sustainability-linked issue earlier in 2022.
SocGen also owns a top-tier lender in Romania and it played a central role in several bond issues by the Romanian sovereign during 2022.
SocGen’s work extended beyond the countries in which it still owns large banks, however. It was joint bookrunner on a €750 million senior unsecured bond from Polish development bank BGK in February, for example. It also led a €750 million debut senior preferred bond for PKO BP in January this year.
And it broke a bank issuance drought in Turkey, acting as bookrunner on senior unsecured bonds for Ziraat Bank and Turk Eximbank in January.
