"This is probably the most exiting, innovative period in the history of the Eurobond markets," says Charlie Berman, speaking on the edge of Salomon Smith Barney's vast trading floor above London's Victoria Station. Salomon's head of European debt origination explains: "The exiting thing is the creation of a credit market to rival the US. It's not a complex idea, but it's a big idea. It's all about companies no-one has ever heard of generating interest among investors."
Twenty yards away, on the bond syndicate desk, Peter Charles is illustrating the point. He's just priced a €150 million ($159 million) issue by Delhaize Le Lion, a Belgian supermarket chain best known abroad for its Food Lion stores in the US. Delhaize has no credit rating, but few investors are put off. Apart from the natural Belgian retail bid, asset managers and insurance companies from France and Germany have placed orders.
