Lehman Brothers and Calyon have gained their first bond mandate from Wendel Investissement, the French-listed private equity investor, which has been named as a potential bidder for the €2bn ($2.4bn) champagne, perfume and hotel group Taittinger.

The banks were joint bookrunners with ABN Amro and SG Corporate & Investment Banking selling €300m ($367m) worth of bonds yesterday. The issue was postponed in the wake of the terrorist attacks in London last week.