Erap, the French state holding company that is financing the state's participation in France Télécom's rights issue, has generated a strong bid from non-French investors in the bond market.

The €4bn ($4.3bn) five-year bond issue, which was priced on Friday by BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and UBS Warburg, attracted orders of €6.3bn. French investors wound up with one third of the deal, while UK investors bought 18% and German-based buyers, many of which were banks, took 7.5%. Nordic investors bought 11%, Swiss buyers had 6.5%, the Netherlands and Italy bought 4% each and US took 3%.