Retail Bond Expert

With bank lending remaining scarce, the recent trend towards companies raising finance from their customers by issuing retail bonds has continued apace such that total issuance is set to exceed £1bn 2012.

As predicted by Retail Bond Expert on 17th November Unite Group has become the latest property company to seek to diversify its funding structure by launching a retail bond on ORB.

As of August 2012, instant access accounts offered just 0.22% interest and deposit accounts 1.51%. Meanwhile cash ISAs offered an average of just 0.66% while fixed-term savings bonds paid more, but only 2.49% a year.

This has been the most prolific year to date for the retail bond market since the launch of ORB in 2010.

Since the Summer of 2012, the London Stock Exchange’s platform for retail bond issuance has witnessed rapid growth

With only six weeks left to make use of the 2012-2013 ISA allowance, savers and investors are increasingly considering retail bonds as a way to achieve above-inflation returns.

City Profile has been appointed as the corporate communications adviser to ORBIG, (Order Book for Retail Bond Issuer Group

Phillip Gilbert of Linear Investments poses the question

Painfully low interest rates attract savers and investors to higher rates of return

With Thursday’s half-yearly figures expected to show the full extent of the problems at the troubled Co-operative Bank, bond holders have united in their opposition to proposed plans to exchange their debt for equity, and have taken their case to the Bank of England – and beyond!

Enraged bond holders call for an alternative strategy to fill the hole in Co-op Bank balance sheet, but intransigent borrower insists there is no alternative.

Retail Bond Expert confirms the need for caution as borrowers tempt investors with a whole range of both listed and unlisted bonds, and asks if it is time for industry standard product definitions.

Oil company issues ‘top up’ on the retail bond launched earlier in the year.

Relief at Co-op Bank as 99.9% of bondholders vote to approve recapitalisation plan.

Consultation could lead to relaxing of rules around time to maturity as Treasury plots ISA rule change

A look at the past 12 months in the AIM and Bond markets

Positive response from investors prompts early closure