Final Score: European High Yield Q2 Review

Research evidence excerpt

Final Score: European High Yield Q2 Review

J P M O R G A N Europe Credit Research

02 July 2026

Final Score

European High Yield Q2 Review

Issuance and redemption trends Europe Corporate Credit - Strategy

Daniel Lamy AC

• According to our figures, 2Q26 set a record for European-currency high yield (44-20) 7134-0467

non-financial bond supply, with €49.2bn printing, €1bn above the previous daniel.lamy@jpmorgan.com

record set in 2Q25. Matthew Bailey

(44-20) 7134-2384

• Net supply of €32.5bn was also a quarterly record, although some refinancing matthew.a.bailey@jpmorgan.com

activity in June will not show up in our redemption figures until July. Samuel Hayani

• The proportion of deals rated BB dropped from 67% in Q1 to 58% in Q2, but (44 20) 3493-4001

remains elevated relative to prior year averages. Single-B supply picked-up to samuel.hayani@jpmorgan.com

J.P. Morgan Securities plc

36% over the quarter.

• After a busy first quarter, corporate hybrid issuance dropped to 16% of second

quarter volume, and accounts for 21% of the YTD total.

• The average tenor of bonds issued in Q2 was 5.7y, down from 6.1y in the first

quarter. The average coupon increased from 5.7% in Q1 to 6.0% in Q2.

• FRNs made up just 6% of Q2 issuance, or 14% of secured volume. This is

significantly down on recent years, indicating that issuers prefer to lock-in

coupons in light of the energy price shock, which has caused the rates curve to

flatten this year.

• Just £0.7bn of sterling HY bonds were issued in Q2, possibly due to political

instability and volatile gilt yields. That takes the YTD total to £2.5bn.

Table 1: European Currency Non-Financial High Yield Issuance History, €bn

Issuance Redemptions Net Issuance Coupon Net Minus Coupon

2014 83.7 49.7 34.1 15.3 18.8

2015 75.9 51.1 24.9 16.4 8.5