Established in Paris for more than one hundred and fifty years, JP Morgan’s teams have seen their share of governments pass by. What does the largest bank in the United States think of the current French psychodrama? On December 12, between an already censored Michel Barnier and a not yet named François Bayrou, the cream of the tricolor office, gathered around Kyril Courboin, its president, indulged in a few confidences. Bloody. “The Americans who follow the debates here have the impression of being at a carnival.” “In Europe, only Italy and Spain are now seen as havens of stability.” “Since the dissolution of the Assembly, all the investment funds have lifted their pencils. The only deal worth more than 10 billion euros, that of Opella [NDLR : la branche grand public de Sanofi, rachetée par le fonds CD & R]passed because the Ministry of the Economy was weak at that time.”
One last one for the road? “Certain groups are as good or even better rated today than the State itself in terms of debt. This is what we usually see… in emerging economies.” Credited with an AA- by Standard & Poor’s, France is ahead of L’Oréal and Sanofi (AA). At Fitch, this same AA- is also attributed to TotalEnergies. Finally, by downgrading the French rating to Aa3 on the very evening of François Bayrou’s arrival at Matignon, Moody’s aligned it with that of LVMH. So many remarkably managed companies, unlike our public accounts. The masks change, the farce continues.