Bank of America

The record-breaking pace of US corporate bond issuance shows no sign of abating as more than 20 issuers from across the ratings spectrum dashed out of earnings to issue this week, amid red-hot funding conditions.

Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, Finland has found a novel way to meet its increased funding needs: private placements. Over the last six weeks, the sovereign has supplemented its regular auctions with €5.65bn of privately placed trades, issuing private debt off its benchmark bond programme for the first time ever.

Corporate bond bankers expect May to be a blockbuster month, as syndicate officials say that coronavirus pandemic fatigue has set in and the market has stopped worrying about it.

Signify, the Dutch lighting company, got roaring demand for its acquisition bridge takeout bond on Thursday — its maiden issue — as it tempted investors with an eye-catching initial spread.

Any impression that the European corporate bond market was returning to more measured levels of activity was zapped on Tuesday, when five new issues were launched that had to squeeze more than €35bn of bids into just €6.25bn of paper.

Diageo, the UK distiller, visited the booming dollar bond market for $2.5bn on Monday, as Europe’s syndicate bankers say they are getting more requests from companies to print debt on the other side of the Atlantic.

US companies Amphenol Technologies and Air Products and Chemicals have mandated banks for euro bond issues, as bankers expect Reverse Yankee issuance to rise after a spell of record-breaking volume in the dollar market.

April is set to be the second busiest month ever in the US corporate bond market (after March), as companies pile up funding to build up their financial resilience to Covid-19, despite continuing volatility and waves of bad news.

US banks this week reported stellar returns from trading and underwriting in the first quarter, even as the bottom line was hit by gigantic writedowns and reserves for credit losses, as the economic and financial disruption from the coronavirus crisis took its toll.

US banks ramped up reserves for credit losses, expanded credit lines and enjoyed bumper trading and debt underwriting volumes in the first quarter, according to results released on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The UK’s EasyJet is about to have $500m of funds released to it, after the budget airline sent a utilisation request to its banking group at the start of the week.

European corporates found a strong bond market on Monday after raising a record amount of bond funding last week, as the European Central Bank pours money into high grade debt.