A private equity consortium that has been relying on a temporary bridging loan to finance its acquisition of a French engineering company, which it carried out nearly a year ago, has been able to take advantage of the improving high-yield bond markets with the launch of a large bond offering.

Clayton Dubilier & Rice, Axa Private Equity and Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec last May bought Spie for €2.1bn, but shortly after the acquisition, the high-yield bond market ground to a halt.