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For Jean Marc Doucet, long-term funding manager at French building materials group Lafarge, timing is one of the main secrets of Eurobond issuance. "I think it is always better to issue in the first part of the year," he says. "Portfolio managers are still rebuilding their portfolios and it is easier to be inserted in it in this period than after, when it is basically already set up."
Following previous deals in 1997 and 1998, the only bond that Lafarge launched this year - a €500 million ($523 million) issue - was, unusually, not marketed with any roadshows and it came on June 28, right at the end of Doucet's favourite period.
For most of the spring, Lafarge's borrowing team was convinced that they could have held back from to issuing this year, but they changed their minds at the end of May, when markets looked too good to ignore. "Since March the level of the interest rates was exceptionally low, so at the end of May we decided to exploit the situation and tap the market.