The European equity-linked market generated over e9 billion in convertible redemptions in January, which is almost a third of what is expected in maturities and puts through the whole of 2004.
This leaves large amounts of investor demand at a time when issuance is relatively slow. The rate of new issues is unlikely to pick up before the end of this month or March, so those issuers that move quickly are set to meet unusually strong demand.
Redemptions came from companies including Carrefour, France Télécom, Suez/AXA and Vivendi Universal on January 1. They...
