German corporates catch the high yield wave

Opinion is divided on the progress being made by high yield bonds as an asset class in Germany. Some say that recent upheavals such as the FlowTex fiasco have made local investors wary of issues offering triple-digit yields. For evidence, they point to the disappointing response among German investors to some of this year’s landmark transactions in the European high yield market. In the case of Level 3, for example, which at Eu800m was the largest European high yield issue to date, German investors accounted for a disappointingly low 3.5% of demand.