Best borrower poll: E.On makes virtue of volume

Although E.On is one of the best-known utilities in Europe, it went five years without issuing a major bond in the capital markets. All that was to change in the middle of 2007, when it announced a €30 billion investment initiative, the financing for which needed to be raised by 2010. "The euro market was closed for much of 2008 – it was a really difficult year. Sometimes the market was only open for a few days at a time," says Verena Volpert, head of finance at E.On.