Calyon is co-bookrunner alongside BNP Paribas and HSBC in the BNP Paribas rights issue launched on September 29. The EUR 4.3 billion capital increase with preferential subscription rights was initially underwritten by Calyon and HSBC, and was subsequently opened to other banks.

The purpose of the transaction is to reimburse the preference shares held by the French government. At EUR 40 per share, the issue represents a 27% discount on the theoretical ex-rights price.

Investors reacted well to this transaction, which is one of the first in Europe designed to repay state aid to a bank. It is expected to be around 8% accretive to BNP Paribas earnings per share and result in a 9.1% Tier 1 ratio (pro forma at June 30, 2009).