UK

On Wednesday BP became the third UK issuer to sell bonds in euros this week. The €1.5bn dual tranche deal followed oil entering bear market territory on Tuesday.

Orange, the French telecoms company, sold a third of its stake in UK peer BT Group on Monday night through a block trade and used another third to back an exchangeable bond in an attempt to “take a balanced approach when reducing its exposure”, a banker on the deal said.

Allied Irish Banks has narrowed the price range on its IPO, having attracted a strong response from investors. The flotation is now likely to raise €3.1bn at the upper end of the range.

The charging of four Barclays executives and the group itself on Tuesday after a UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation might, at last, satisfy the public desire to see bankers banged up. But it’s hard to see what else it will achieve.

British Telecommunications brought its second triple tranche euro bond transaction in 16 months on Tuesday. The orderbooks were heavily oversubscribed, with demand skewed toward the longest tranche.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney welcomed parts of the European Commission’s draft proposals on euro clearing this week while warning against relocating the activity from its base in London.

The multi-tranche theme of the week continued on Tuesday. British Telecommunications and Coentreprise de Transport d’Electricité both launched triple tranche bond deals, with the volume skewed towards the longer tranches.

Compass Group, the UK food service group, offered investors a choice of main courses on Monday, combining a €750m seven year bond with a £300m 12 year. Demand was plentiful for both and the new issue premia were minimal.

Greencoat Capital, the renewable energy investment manager, started investor education on Monday for a mid-July listing of a new Irish wind farm vehicle on the London and Dublin bourses, hoping to raise €250m.

As temperatures across Europe hit new highs for the year, primary issuance is also hotting up in its corporate bond market. Borrowers led the charge on Monday with three well received deals totalling five tranches.

European corporate bond markets have quickly shrugged off the uncertainty surrounding the UK election result and central bank meetings, and look set for a busy end to June.

A few months ago political risk was the new big driver of the markets. Yet as UK politics enters its most uncertain period in decades, the country’s banks are jumping into the market and accessing credit cheaply. Supply dynamics, not politics, are king, writes Jasper Cox.