Primary high yield (HY) bond issuance fell by 23.6% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) in the first three months of the year, and was down almost 30% year-on-year (YoY), Dealogic data shows.
A total of 82 deals were completed in Q1, amounting to €28.81 billion. Funds were primarily dedicated to general corporate purposes, which took the highest percentage of raised capital since Q3 2023. None was assigned to restructuring or acquisitions.
The majority of these issuance volumes came from developed markets, and were overwhelmingly issued on a 5-7 year basis. France was the leading country of issuance, followed by the UK, Italy and Germany.
In emerging markets, Turkey took the lead with almost €4 billion in issuance. Greece trailed with less than €1 billion.
Sponsored markets took more of the pie in developed than emerging markets, but still remained behind corporate markets.
The majority of outstanding corporate bonds in the European emerging markets were non-rated in the first three months of the year, compared to developed markets, where the bulk were investment grade (IG) rated. At the point of issuance, more than half of these bonds were rated BB. In emerging markets, the number of BB-rated issuances fell somewhat and more were issued a B rating. A fraction of the market is BBB-rated.
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