After a dismal start to the year, investment-grade corporate bond issuance has come back to life in Europe. As if to celebrate its resurrection, brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) issued the largest ever euro-denominated bond, for which BNP Paribas, one of the leading lights in European corporate debt, acted as joint global co-ordinator.
This has been an unusual year in the debt capital markets, with record highs and, as first-quarter investment banking results have demonstrated, miserable lows. It started very badly. January is never a bumper month for corporate issuance because so many companies are in their close periods, but this year it was exceptionally quiet.
