Atalian : FINANCIÈRE ATALIAN

Atalian is preparing to issue a seven-year bond of € 600m (NC3) that will mainly be used to prepay the 7.25% ATALIA 2020 paper (€ 415m, i.e. € 400m repaid at 103.625%) and to fund acquisitions. The price talk was announced at 4.25% (+/-0.125%) and recommend subscribing to the issue at these levels. We see Atalian as a "low beta" issuer (which is fairly defensive in relation to changes in economic conditions), and for which management boasts an excellent track record in meeting set targets and digesting acquisitions. This resulted in a good track record for ATALIA 2020 notes which will be repaid (resilient performance without "accident" since its issuance in 2013). The new ATALIA 2024 bonds are also expected to benefit from the favourable signal sent by S&P and Moody's which decided to assign a positive outlook to their ratings.Nothe that in recent days, bonds issued on the market have been priced with precious little premium, which will probably also be the case for this primary paper. For instance, Nomad Foods (B1/BB-) recently placed a € 400m seven-year bond (2024) at 3.25%. Grifols (Ba3/BB, bond rating B2/B+) issued a € 1bn eight-year paper (2025) at 3.25%. Lastly, today Netflix (B1/B+) is seeking to issue a € 1bn 10-year note (2027), with a price talk of 3.75 to 4%. Looking at comparable bonds, we see in particular the LOXAM 24 notes (secured, rated 'BB-' negative) which trade at a YTW of 3.5% (priced on the 2022 call). >