Send us a text

◆ Why buy bonds when spreads are so tight

◆ Using tech to unearth new economic signals

◆ Playing the shifting relative value pitch

This week, in an exclusive interview with world's largest investment manager, BlackRock, we discussed how much tighter credit spreads can go, what is driving it and how the company is adjusting to underlying shifts in relative value.

We also debated tech: whether digitalisation of the bond market is all it's cracked up to be for the buy-side and how BlackRock is using technology to find new economic signals to guide investment decisions — especially prevalent at a time when traditional sources, such as government publications, may be turning less representative and reliable.

We talked about all of this and more with Simon Blundell, BlackRock's head of European fundamental fixed income investments. BlackRock is the world's largest investment firm, running $12.5tr of assets.

Send us a text

◆ Italy dazzles with size as we launch our new MTN Awards

◆ Enel snubs the market it created

◆ Record month for CEEMEA bond issuers

Italy showed just what the medium term note market can do for borrowers this week as it priced a €700m deal. We examine what the benefits were to the issuer.

We are also launching our first ever dedicated MTN Awards. We tell you how they will be awarded and how to take part but you can also click here to find out more.

We also discuss what Enel's decision to ditch sustainability-linked bonds means for the product that it created. The SLB market has slowed of late but we argue that there is plenty of life in it yet.

Meanwhile, there was no let-up in the pace of emerging market bond issuance this week. We look at who brought deals and why the market is so hot right now.

Send us a text

◆ QNB deal to pique Gulf interest in euro issuance

◆ Denmark develops green market with EuGB

◆ Foreign AT1s return to Aussie market

GlobalCapital began life in 1987 as a weekly newspaper called EuroWeek, dedicated to tracking the international flows of capital developing in the growing Eurobond market. This week provided some classic examples of the genre as borrowers looked abroad for new sources of cash.

QNB, a Qatar bank, priced an eye-catching bond in euros this week. It was the issuer's first in the currency and offered a tantalising glimpse of an underexploited pool of cash to Gulf borrowers. We discuss why the region's issuers can and should visit the market.

Denmark, meanwhile, may not have come to the international markets but it did do an important green bond — one that adhered to the European Union Green Bond Standard. We delve into why this trade was such an important development for this nascent asset class.

Finally, UBS brought the first additional tier one bond in Australian dollars for six years. Again, the deal will tip off other big European banks that there is cash to be raised in the Australian market. We explain why AT1s work in Aussie dollars even after the Australian regulator binned the asset class for its own banks in what is an illustrative tale of how important the market is becoming to international bond issuers.