Debutantes dazzle

A fresh spate of debut deals look set to keep the corporate bond market busy this week, after AP Møller-Maersk issued on Friday. Phoenix Natural Gas is expected to come to the market on Wednesday, and a deal for William Hill is also in the works for next week. Some more frequent issuers such as Telefónica also took advantage of the benign conditions in the euro market, but issuance is still dominated by rarer names, such as French advertising group Havas, also set to price its deal this week. However, the success of recent issues has failed to quell concerns that the market is opening up too quickly to these issuers. Read EuroWeek for the market’s reaction to this latest batch of deals.