The Commission des Opérations de Bourse (COB), the French securities regulator, is setting up a working group to look into the market impact of mandatory convertible bond structures recently issued by Vivendi Universal and Alcatel.

Alcatel's €630m ($644m) convertible bond earlier this month was managed by Deutsche Bank, which approached the French firm and pitched the same structure as it had used for the €1bn mandatory issue from Vivendi, the French media and group, in November.