Europe

French telecoms company Iliad is becoming a frequent borrower in the corporate bond market. Two deals in six years have been followed by two deals in seven months. The company’s latest deal, a dual tranche offering, was its largest to date, but order books were barely 1.5 times oversubscribed.

The European Central Bank’s Ad Visser acknowledged its "flexible" approach to covered bond purchases at the European Covered Bond Council’s plenary meeting held in Vancouver on Wednesday. His remark was made in response to a question about whether the ECB was reducing its primary market orders by 10% to a maximum of 30% of a deal’s size.

Digital advertising firm Yell added a new sub-benchmark deal to an otherwise lacklustre sterling high yield bond pipeline this week. The market is lagging more than £1bn ($1.4bn) behind 2017’s first quarter volumes.

A four week wait for a new corporate hybrid deal came to an end this week with $2.3bn of supply. The levels of oversubscription, however, showed that plenty of demand still remains as investors clamour for the enhanced yields on offer compared to senior debt.

Stoxx on Thursday announced the launch of indices for the liability driven investment industry, products that are ready suited for derivative contract creation.

Allen & Overy, IHS Markit and Smart Communications subsidiary SmartDX on Thursday announced that they had launched a platform to speed up the repapering of derivatives contracts, in anticipation of new regulatory requirements.

The Kingdom of Norway sold its first syndication on Thursday, following a two week global roadshow intended to broaden and internationalise the investor base buying government debt from the Scandinavian country.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has proposed new powers that could allow it to control elements of foreign clearing houses’ operations (CCPs) in “exceptional” crisis situations, according to a leaked position paper. This is likely to escalate already tense relations with US regulators.

Tritax Big Box REIT, the UK real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on “big box” distribution centres, has raised £155m ($218.31m) of growth capital and was covered in excess of its deal size.

Virgin Money came to the market on Thursday with a debut deal from its holding company, following a deal from Leeds Building Society to meet its minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) on Wednesday. UK financial institutions have been active this year amid numerous challenges, including Brexit.

The sterling corporate bond market has been less busy year to date than it was in 2017. However, the property sector has continued to be one of the largest contributors of supply and, on Thursday, Grainger added its name to the list of issuers from the industry.

Phoenix Group Holdings opened order books on a restricted tier one deal in the sterling market on Thursday, ahead of its planned acquisition of Standard Life.