Cleary Gottlieb advised Crédit Agricole in connection with a tender offer to purchase for cash four series of Tier 2 bonds issued under its Euro Medium-Term Note Programme and seven series of covered bonds issued by Crédit Agricole Home Loan SFH, the Crédit Agricole Group’s special-purpose covered bond issuance vehicle.
Launched on March 14, 2016 and settled on March 24, 2016, the tender offer led to the purchase by Crédit Agricole S.A. of a principal amount of more than €1.2 billion Tier 2 bonds for a total price (excluding accrued interest) of more than €1.4 billion and of a principal amount of more than €3 billion covered bonds for a total price (excluding accrued interest) of more than €3.4 billion.
The tender offer represents one of the balance sheet optimization transactions contemplated in the announcement of February 17, 2016 relating to the Crédit Agricole Group’s structural simplification transactions.
Following the closing of the tender offer, Crédit Agricole Home Loan SFH called bondholder meetings seeking consent to modify the covered bonds that were not purchased in the tender offer from “hard bullet” to “soft bullet” bonds (“soft bullet” means that, if the issuer does not repay the bonds at the scheduled maturity date, the maturity is automatically extended by one year).