SSAR Bond House: Barclays
Leading the way One bank stood out across currencies in the public sector markets in 2024. It facilitated some of the biggest and longest euros appearances while winning issuers’ trust to deliver substantial US dollar and sterling deals as well. For guiding issuers to the right pocket of demand at the right time in a highly changeable year, Barclays is IFR’s SSAR Bond House of the Year.
The start of 2024 was defined by big demand and big deal sizes. Out of the gate, sovereigns posted record order book after record order book, thanks to a surge of cash into fixed-income markets.
The interest wasn’t being collected in the safety of the short end either. The risk-on mood swept along the curve, all the way up to the 30-year mark. Barclays was at the forefront of delivering those big, early SSA deals.
The six core sovereign euro deals that Barclays placed in January – among the most done by any bank, IFR data show – included some of the biggest and longest. It placed Spain’s €15bn 10-year, which was 2024’s largest single sovereign tranche, and Finland’s €3bn 30-year.
And its business didn’t stop at the well-tested products. Barclays was a joint bookrunner on the African Development Bank's groundbreaking US$750m sustainable hybrid bond in late January.
But the early-year party did not last. Inflation proved stickier than expected, keeping interest rates higher for longer. The ecstatic tone in euros gave way to uncertainty around rates and inflation trajectories that weighed on buyer sentiment. In that soured, post-summer window over late August to mid-September, Barclays shepherded eight core SSA euro benchmarks through the market, making it one of the most active banks in the single currency over that challenging period.
Even before the post-summer reopening, the bank was getting deals done. In early June French president Emmanuel Macron shocked investors by announcing a snap election that led to a period of market volatility. The European Union, which pre-announces its syndication windows, had to do a deal in the week of June 10. The pressure was on the mandated banks to ensure a smooth transaction.
"Out of all their deals, that was the one that … was a real challenge,” said Lee Cumbes, Barclays head of debt capital markets in EMEA. “They had to come."
Questions swirled around the appearance, Cumbes said. “How was it going to go? Were they really going to do size? France is a massive part of their shareholding and guarantee. French spreads [were] all over the place."
While the €6bn October 2039 bond cleared with a relatively small book and minimal tightening, it showed that the EU had market access even with weakened buyer sentiment. Having a decisive view of the market was key to getting the deal over the line, said Cumbes.
Given the difficulty of securing euro benchmarks after summer, issuers started looking at their funding options outside the single currency. Yet that didn’t faze Barclays, given it has an approach that is “multicurrency and global in order to dip into different pockets of financing", said Cumbes.
Those euro-based issuers that could consider US dollar deals did so, but they needed careful hand-holding. "It was a year when capturing that cost-effective cross-currency level was more challenging, so issuers asked us to support them [to access that market]," said Alex Paterson, head of Barclays’ SSA DCM.
Its quality of service in US dollars was apparent in IFR’s 2024 SSA US dollar league table, which excludes US agencies and regions. The UK bank improved its position, moving up one notch to second place with a 7.77% market share.
Sterling offered a similar chance for funding away from euros but, along with the cross-currency swap, issuers had to navigate the notorious on-then-off sentiment in that market. Barclays, again, was happy to oblige issuers eyeing sterling demand.
The bank came second for non-sovereign core SSA sterling deals in 2024 and acted for a raft of issuers placing their first benchmark trades in the currency, such as Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, International Development Association and Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
Barclays performed on the sovereign front, too, and was among the banks involved in the UK Debt Management Office’s biggest single syndicated bond in 2024: the £11bn July 2034 Gilt sale in June.
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