The Chemicals Catalyst: June 2026

Research evidence excerpt

The Chemicals Catalyst: June 2026

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European Chemicals

Credit Analysis

Upcoming earnings results 07 July 2026

July is expected to see most of the earnings results across the sector with market High Grade Credit

expectations leaning positive mainly from potential one-off impacts of the Middle East Europe

conflict, especially in upstream chemicals (see Exhibit 9). Chemicals

Recommendation changes: add new Lanxess €31s at MW WilliamResearchDennisAnalyst

We add the recently issued Lanxess €31s at Marketweight on attractive yields vs similar MLI (UK) +44 20 7996 1251

rated bonds despite our views of further ratings downgrade risk given Lanxess’s high william.dennis@bofa.com

leverage vs Ba2 downgrade thresholds, uncertainty around Envalior stake sale and weak Stephanie Vincent, CFA

pricing power. Research Analyst

MLI (UK)

New bond issuance: +69% YTD +44stephanie.a.vincent@bofa.com20 7996 1143

YTD issuance reached c. €11.4bn, up 69% yoy. Issuance year to date is mainly driven by

HY credits with some higher quality specialty and industrial gas issuance. Monthly

issuance patterns indicate strong issuance in February and March with a slowdown in

April and May as the Middle East conflict negotiations stall. In June, we see Lanxess,

Akzo Nobel, Clariant and CABB Chemicals come to market. The month also saw

announcements from Nouryon and Stonepeak Motion (Castrol). Akzo Nobel’s new 2031s

issuance saw strong investor interest, being oversubscribed by 8x, according to

Bloomberg data (see Exhibit 29).

Best/worst performers: European chemicals underperform

European IG chemical bonds underperformed in June vs other sectors at 0.48% on a total

return basis and 0.05% on an excess return basis. In HY, the reversal of performance in