Positively negative

摘要

There had been an air of inevitability about it for a while, and now it has finally happened. Well, sort of. Ever since the ECB announced in March that it would add investment-grade corporate bonds to its buying programme, the tumbling yields in euro-denominated debt had the market abuzz with the prospect of an issuer actually getting investors to pay for the pleasure of lending it money. It nearly happened in April, but Unilever opted for a four-year tenor and ended up having to price its zero-coupon deal at a small discount - for a positive yield of 0.08%. Had it gone for a three-year, it could well be wearing the crown that has now been claimed by Deutsche Bahn: the first corporate issuer to issue a negative yielding bond in the primary market.