Crédit Mutuel - CIC Group in $1.75 Billion Inaugural Benchmark U.S. Bond Offering

Cleary Gottlieb represented Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel, the central funding bank of the CM11-CIC group, in its inaugural issuance of US$1.75 billion principal amount of $1,000,000,000 2.500% Notes due 2018 and $750,000,000 Floating Rate Notes due 2016. The offering, made in the United States pursuant to Rule 144A and outside the United States pursuant to Regulation S, was lead managed by Citigroup Global Markets, BNP Paribas Securities Corp, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Securities and Morgan Stanley. The transaction priced on October 22 and closed on October 29. This was the first bond issuance of BFCM under its new $10,000,000,000 medium-term note program, established on October 8.

The CM11-CIC group is a major French banking group that includes eleven regional federations of local banks operating under the Crédit Mutuel name, the CIC retail banking network and subsidiaries with activities such as insurance, private banking, private equity and consumer finance. The group’s business, which traces its roots to 1882, is concentrated in retail banking and insurance in France, and also includes financial activities in Germany, Spain and other countries. BFCM is owned indirectly by the local banks and raises funding on international markets for the group, as well as acting as holding company for group subsidiaries.