Falling interest rates, returning inflows and a wave of pandemic-era redemptions mean CEEMEA bond market participants have high expectations for 2026. This optimism comes after a record-breaking year for issuance — and by quite some margin — meaning that 2025 will be a tough act to follow, writes George Collard

A booming 2025 investment grade corporate bond market in Europe set a high bar as investors brace to pay higher premiums and shift to the belly of the curve in 2026. Meanwhile, capex, M&A and Reverse Yankees look set to keep the pipeline full, write Diana Bui and Frank Jackman

The European FIG market rode through 2025 on high demand for credit, providing bank issuers, large and small, with extremely advantageous funding conditions. Although investors have also benefitted from strong secondary market performance, as Atanas Dinov reports, that equilibrium may change in 2026, with anticipation mounting that spreads will widen

The CEEMEA primary bond market in 2025 shattered the record for bond issuance by some distance. Investors flocked to buy ahead of US interest rate cuts, meaning the market was open to just about every issuer. It is hard to find too many deals that were not a success, making this the pick of a very large crop

Investment grade companies demonstrated just how much liquidity was sloshing around in the euro, dollar, sterling and Swiss franc markets with a string of large deals. But these bonds did not just stand out for the amount issued. Rather, they showed that there is not always a trade-off to be made between size and price

With a relentless flow of cash into credit markets this year, almost every borrower could be said to have done well. But some issuers stood out for their ability to establish new footholds in certain markets that have since paved the way for peers

Investors in Latin America are growing increasingly concerned that social unrest in Colombia, where tax reform plans are in tatters and more than 40 people have been killed, is a sign of things to come, with sovereigns facing severe pressure as they attempt to improve credit profiles that have been battered by the coronavirus pandemic. Yet sovereign bond markets are seeing only modest, short-lived sell-offs, given the enormous liquidity still in bond markets.

In this round-up, the China Securities Regulatory Commission plans to ask companies to include separate chapters for corporate governance as well as environmental and social responsibilities in their annual financial reports, and three Chinese telecommunications companies will be dropped from the New York Stock Exchange after an unsuccessful appeal.

UBS has revamped its management of sustainability and appointed Michael Baldinger as chief sustainability officer. Last month it named Suni Harford, president of UBS Asset Management, as group executive board sponsor for sustainability and impact.

Liontrust Asset Management is launching a new listed ESG fund on the London Stock Exchange.

Banks backing the successful Allied Universal bid for UK security company G4S are set to split around $100m in financing fees for backing the deal, with Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley in line for the lion’s share of the profits, as the $6.3bn eight tranche syndication is priced and the firm is delisted.

A small band of committed investors in Tesco has achieved spectacular success with a shareholder motion on healthy food. This should embolden investors to hold issuers to account on a wider range of social matters — and also contains a deeper lesson about how markets bring about change.

Debt financing to become more sophisticated as the race to build data centres across Europe heats up

JP Morgan sole bookrunner on first jumbo block in a month

This week Tom Hall and Thomas Hopkins discuss how Enpal's return heated up the ABS market and take the CLO equity market's temperature

Company's relationship banks provided the funding

UK chancellor got the big things right in the Budget but made damaging unforced errors

Emerging markets are particularly vulnerable to protests led by disgruntled youth

Artificial intelligence is everywhere — but what is it doing? Capital market specialists think about it constantly, even if only because they are told to, with feelings ranging from delight to horror. Market participants are exploring myriad ways both to use AI, writes Jon Hay, and neutralise its risks

December is a strange time to be in the capital markets. Embrace it

This week a managing director deals with the awkwardness of their boss finding out they had been in contention for a job at another firm

First deal of its kind more than 1.5 times subscribed

Deal complexity, new issuer premium sees trade start more than 100bp wide of last WBS

Gym franchise wants to refinance paper issued in 2022