France Télécom, and its seperately quoted mobile phone subsidiary Orange, received a boost after Standard & Poor's, the international ratings agency, upgraded their credit ratings to BBB from BBB. Guy Deslondes, credit analyst at S&P, noted that France Télécom's cashflow was "markedly stronger" and that cuts in working capital and expenditure were "materially better than Standard & Poor's initial expectations". France Télécom has also cut its net debt by roughly €23.8bn ($30.7bn), to €44.2bn, S&P said.

CDC Ixis names co-heads of complex credit and securitisation