Europe corp bond issuance plummets in Q1

[regoer]

After the worst start for European corporate bond issuance this decade, analysts are hoping that a spurt of new deals in the past week will kick-start the primary market in the second quarter.

European corporate bond activity totalled just $30.3 billion from 71 issues in the first quarter of this year, down 53 percent from the $65 billion raised from 130 issues in the same period a year ago, according to preliminary data from Thomson Financial published on Friday.