High yield bond issuance reached €66 billion in 2023, up from €45 billion in 2022 which had been a record low.
The findings come from the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) Q4 2023 European High Yield and Leveraged Loan Report, detailing European leveraged finance end-of-year market trends for 2023. The report has a particular focus on issuance and credit performance data for the high yield and leveraged loan markets.
While 185 high yield bond tranches were issued in 2023, generating €66 billion in proceeds, high yield bond issuance continued below pre-pandemic values of around €100 billion per year. Europe issuance accounted for 80% of 2023 issuance (€53 billion on 149 deals), while the remaining (€13 billion on 36 deals) was issued by emerging market firms. During the year, high yield bond Europe issuance rose for both developed and developing markets by 39.5% and 85.7%, respectively, when compared to 2022 figures.
European high yield spreads tightened only slightly during 2023, from 4.85% in the beginning of January 2023 to 3.96% at the end of December.
©Markets Media Europe 2024
