Top stories

• IG bond bankers pin hopes on cheap credit as recession fears grow

  

  Secondary market spread may have widened in the corporate bond market, with an inversion in the US Treasury curve stoking recession fears. However investment grade bond bankers are confident investor appetite in the primary market is not facing existential threat.

  • 15 Aug 2019

• Default risks accumulate in Brexit-plagued UK market

  

  UK corporate debt is at an all-time high as the risks posed by a traumatic departure from the EU in October peak. Default risk among UK industrials has deteriorated sharply in recent years while at the same time their EU counterparts have lowered their risk profile. Karoliina Liimatainen reports.

  • 15 Aug 2019

• Details emerge on ZF blockbuster Schuldschein return

  

  ZF Friedrichshafen is targeting the end of August to launch its grand return to the Schuldschein market, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The German car parts maker’s €2.2bn issue in November 2014 is the biggest deal the market has ever seen but a bigger deal may be on the way.

  • 14 Aug 2019

• HY market grapples with tough turnarounds

  

  With no major new issues in sight, the high yield bond market has been dominated by the news of troubled businesses struggling to come up with credible turnaround plans.

  • 14 Aug 2019

• Brace for more Burford-style rows if QE ramps up

  

  Burford Capital, the litigation funder, is under pressure over how it accounts for an obscure type of asset and how it finances its business using debt. In many respects it is a unique case, but it is a debacle fuelled by quantitative easing. With more of that on the way, pushing investors into ever more esoteric asset classes in the quest for yield, there will be plenty more businesses under scrutiny.

  • 13 Aug 2019

• Gewobag to close SSD with ‘well over €1bn’ bids

  

  German housing company Gewobag has closed a Schuldschein in the next few days with well over €1bn of orders, in a transaction that could be the largest of this year so far.

  • 13 Aug 2019

• Thomas Cook nosedive on £150m recap news

  

  Thomas Cook's shares and bonds fell on Monday after the company disclosed that it is in talks to raise £150m of capital from its creditors and largest shareholder to keep trading over the winter period.

  • 12 Aug 2019

• Lecta bonds wilt as it tries to secure support

  

  A Barcelona-headquartered paper company wants to focus on higher-margin specialist papers but it is floundering to find the money needed for a turn-around after the European Union delivered a blow that sent its bonds sliding.

  • 13 Aug 2019

• Scandi taps flow again after summer break

  

  Volumes are growing across the spectrum in the Scandinavian MTN markets, as issuers and bankers return from their summer holidays. Meanwhile, bankers are expecting Scandinavian investors to move further out along the credit curve in response to negative yields as dovish Nordic central bank tones could lead to a bullish Scandinavian market.

  • 13 Aug 2019

• Corporate bond market preps for negative rates test

  

  Syndicate bankers in Europe's investment grade corporate bond market are readying themselves a growing number of deals to pay negative yields this September. But how deeply negative and in what part of the curve is up for debate.

  • 12 Aug 2019

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