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French to English translations [PRO] Bus/Financial - Business/Commerce (general)
French term or phrase:la levée (dans ce contexte)
I know that there are several entries for this word in this forum, but I'm still not sure which translation will best fit this context. It's part of the minutes of a company's board meeting: "M. XXX déclare soutenir *la levée* à l’international par XXX S.A et émet les remarques suivantes : Il s’agit d’une sortie inaugurale pour XXX S.A. Il est donc important de choisir le meilleur moment pour *la levée* car les taux peuvent varier sur une fourchette relativement importante, notamment les primes de risque liées à l'Etat ou XXX S.A. Il propose donc de réaliser *la levée* des deux milliards de dollars en plusieurs tranches pour mieux gérer les variations de maturité et de taux." Thank you in advance for your suggestions.
Explanation: The French term in full is "levée de fonds", which literally translates as "fundraising". Everything in the context you cited (interest rate fluctuations, sovereign yields, risk premiums, maturities) suggests that this is about issuing one or more bonds to finance the company's activities. That being the case, it seems to me the most likely and natural word to use in English in this context is "issue" (or, if you really want to spell it out, "bond issue"). I would also use "inaugural issue" for "sortie inaugurale".
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 11 mins (2020-11-14 15:02:23 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Ideally I should probably have put "(bond) issue" as the target term… and of course there's no way to edit it once an answer has been submitted.
Sorry but guesses don't cut the mustard here. "Fund-raising" is not a term a corporate executive would use in this context, and "state-owned risk bonuses" is meaningless.
"Mr X declares that he supports fund-raising for something new which is due to take place for the first time. It's important to choose the most suitable timing for the fund-raising, since rates can vary within a fairly large scale, notably with premiums and state-owned risk bonuses."
1. I didn’t have a “suggestion” up; I posted an answer which I believed (and still do) to be the best one for the given context.
2. I didn’t “shoot down” your answer, I disagreed with it because, on the basis of my professional knowledge and judgement, it was wrong. FWIW, I’ve occasionally posted answers in the past that turned out to be wrong, so I know that when you do that, you have to accept that people are going to disagree with your answer.
3. As far as I’m aware, there’s no rule against an answerer posting a disagree on a different answer if they consider that answer incorrect.
Banks can of course raise funds in other ways like selling off some of their operations or via an equity participation and it was only when you added "emission obligataire" that it was clearer. Until that time, it is just not really on that people with suggestions up themselves shoot down other ideas that could be right albeit I should have said "raising funds" rather than "levy" which is more like a tax. But the French to English group is always like this for some unknown reason.
Thank you very much to everyone who made a contribution here. I didn’t expect that my question would generate such a heated discussion. I noticed that the moderation deleted the comments that were not so perfectly polite. I understand that a ‘disagree’ is not a nice thing to get, but we must behave professionally here, try to help each other and learn with one another. I actually never use ‘disagree’, just the occasional ‘neutral’. I used Rob’s suggestion in my translation (bond issue or the issuance of bonds or even bond loan), but, depending on the sentence, I also used ‘raising capital’. Cheers, everyone!
Then let’s be clear: the mechanism by which this company is raising funds is the issuance of bonds. And in this specific context, “issue” (or “bond issue”) is, IMO, clearly the best term to use in an English rendering of what the text is about. Whether or not “issue” maps directly to “levée” in a dictionary is irrelevant.
You issue bonds first and the market responds afterwards to your issue. If all your bonds are bought, then the bond issue is equal to the funds raised. If not, i.e., if not all the bonds are bought or if you change the terms (interest rate or price) of your bonds to please the market, then the funds raised are not equal to the bonds issued.
A bond is, of course, a way of borrowing money, so "borrowing" might, at least in theory, be a relevant term to use where the context suits. "A borrowing", not so much…
Hi Tereza. You have various instances of the term in your text. You aren't obliged to use exactly the same word each time iin English. Rob's answer fits well for some sentences. However, here "Il propose donc de réaliser *la levée* des deux milliards de dollars en plusieurs tranches" you could swap to "raise capital" (or a variation that fits well with the sentence)
The issue of bonds at a specific value is not equal to the fundraising. Why? Because lenders might not buy all the bonds issued and the state of foreign financial market might force borrowers to change the terms and the quantity of their bonds issued.
It's not my intention to muddy the waters even further, but maybe it will help if I post here one of the decisions from that board meeting: "PROPOSITION D’UNE EMISSION OBLIGATAIRE INTERNATIONALE Après avoir suivi l’exposé et sur proposition du Président Directeur Général, le conseil d'administration décide de soumettre à l'assemblée générale ordinaire une résolution ayant pour objet d’autoriser, conformément aux dispositions de l’article 294 de la Loi n°17-95, relative aux sociétés anonymes telle que complétée et modifiée, l’émission par XXX S.A. d’un emprunt obligataire international, libellé en dollars américains, en une ou plusieurs tranches, d’un montant maximum en principal de deux milliards de dollars américains (2.000.000.000 USD) (rEmission"). L'assemblée générale ordinaire devra également délibérer sur la possibilité de déléguer au conseil d'administration les pouvoirs nécessaires pour procéder, dans un délai de cinq (5) ans à compter de la date de la tenue de l’assemblée, à l'émission d’obligations, en une ou plusieurs fois/tranches, dans la limite du montant maximum fixé par l'assemblée et pour en arrêter les modalités."
It's not a question of being more or less open-minded, thank you very much.
Yes, an "émission d'obligations" is, of course, a bond issue. The author/speaker here is using "levée" as shorthand for "levée de fonds", but "a fundraising" or "a raising of funds" is not available in English. Since the way the company is going to raise funds is by issuing bonds, "issue" or "bond issue" is the most obvious and appropriate way to translate it, in my opinion.
M. XXX is the CEO of a bank. He is one of the attendees of company XXX's board meeting. It is a public limited company that mines phosphate rock, manufactures phosphoric acid, and produces phosphate fertilizer. They are based in Africa. I hope this helps.
"Il est donc important de choisir le meilleur moment pour *la levée* car les taux peuvent varier sur une fourchette relativement importante..."
and so I have the impression that they are going to pay interest which makes no sense with shares. It could just about be conceived to be the interest rate they are going to pay on bonds but this is far from clear.
What type of company preside M. XXX? Is it a central bank or is he CEO of XXX S.A.?
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Answers
9 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +5
issue
Explanation: The French term in full is "levée de fonds", which literally translates as "fundraising". Everything in the context you cited (interest rate fluctuations, sovereign yields, risk premiums, maturities) suggests that this is about issuing one or more bonds to finance the company's activities. That being the case, it seems to me the most likely and natural word to use in English in this context is "issue" (or, if you really want to spell it out, "bond issue"). I would also use "inaugural issue" for "sortie inaugurale".
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 11 mins (2020-11-14 15:02:23 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Ideally I should probably have put "(bond) issue" as the target term… and of course there's no way to edit it once an answer has been submitted.
Rob Grayson United Kingdom Local time: 14:00 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 444
Grading comment
Thank you, everyone! Please see my comment in the discussion area.
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thank you for your suggestion, Rob! It all makes sense. Let's see if anyone else has a suggestion.