NatWest Markets

The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) started its 2019/20 funding year with a bang on Tuesday, selling a six and a half times subscribed issue.

European corporate bond investors showed they were hungry for paper on Thursday, despite the gloom infecting equity markets this week about the prospect of a restart to the China-US trade war. A flurry of issuers came to the market, hot from roadshows, and got plenty of over-subscription while slashing their spreads by 20bp to 30bp.

The strength of corporate bond demand, after falls in stockmarkets engendered by the US's hardened stance on trade talks with China, will be tested in the US on Wednesday by a $20bn issue for IBM. In Europe, the test could come on Thursday, since a handful of issuers finished roadshows on Wednesday.

The UK Debt Management Office has chosen the tenor for the first syndication of its 2019/20 financial year, which is expected to come in the week commencing May 13.

The UK Debt Management Office has mandated four banks for the first Gilt syndication of its 2019/2020 financial year.

Euro investors have become more receptive to UK bank debt this year, leading to a blowout reception for a covered bond from Yorkshire Building Society this week. But issuers are yet to break a long period of silence in sales of unsecured products, mindful as they are of a Brexit hangover in the euro market.

William Hill’s £350m seven year high yield deal last week grabbed an opportunity opened up by the extension to the Brexit deadline, according to group treasurer Mark Hirst, supplying a sterling market that has seen sparse issuance so far this year. But the constrained supply in the market meant the company’s attempt to buy back its 2020s at 103 attracted limited investor interest.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group was marketing a long-dated senior bond in the dollar market on Thursday, copying Barclay’s choice of currency with its first deal after results.

The Manchester Airport Group, which owns Manchester, East Midlands and London Stansted airports, launched a £350m bond on Wednesday. In an investment grade corporate bond market that had otherwise been empty of new issues in the first half of the week, the deal was covered more than 3.5 times.

NatWest Markets made a loss in the first quarter, Royal Bank of Scotland said on Friday when presenting its results, partly thanks to it being made to account for the cost of old RBS plc debt. The group will also now stop including NatWest Markets when reporting its net interest margin, and one analyst said this could raise questions about commitment to the investment bank.

Guarantor: Kingdom of Belgium (51.41%), Republic of France (45.59%) and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (3.00%)

Tesco issued a new £400m six year bond, to fund a tender for bonds from eight older issues, and saw blow-out demand of £3.3bn, as the UK supermarket heads back towards investment grade status.