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London has been a centre for corporate bond issuance since the invention of the Eurobond market in the 1960s. However, whilst the market has kept the issuing banks busy, it has more or less by-passed UK private investors. The mythical Belgian Dentist was thought to be one of the end buyers of Eurobonds, but with denominations of £100,000 and a market dealing through market makers rather than a central exchange, offering no transparency to private investors, corporate bonds have stayed largely an institutional market to date, and we have been frustrated that we have been restricted in what we have been able to show our clients.
Gilts, once a staple of private investor portfolios, fell out of favour after the high-inflation years of the late 1970s eroded their real value, and later as decades of falling interest rates left yields unattractive. That, however, reversed over the last four years, particularly as private investors have become aware of the attractive tax status of sterling bonds trading on discounts. The 0.125% gilt which matured recently on 30 January 2026, returning £41bn to investors, was reckoned to be over half held by private investors (although no accurate figures are kept) – private investors were attracted to this by the QCB rules which exempt capital gains in certain sterling bonds trading at a discount.
The authorities have not made access to corporate bonds easy, but that is now changing. With households holding large pools of cash, channelling this into the capital markets is a core objective of the broader post-Brexit and Edinburgh reforms in the UK (as well as for the EU’s Capital Markets Union plans, though so far this has not resulted in changes affecting bonds). Authorities believe that this will strengthen market resilience, support growth and government financing, and improve outcomes for savers – whilst still managing consumer protection risks. Whether a rules change will actually change the market’s operation remains to be seen, but the signs are encouraging.
From 19 January 2026, the FCA’s new Prospectus Rules (“Admission to Trading on a Regulated Market sourcebook”) came into force. The “Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regime” removes existing bond denomination thresholds and introduces a single disclosure standard for all non-equity securities. This replaces the existing UK Prospectus Regulation and creates a single, consistent disclosure framework for all investors, making the market simpler and more inclusive. This removes two deterrents to the offering of bonds to private investors:
The intention of the regulator – and behind it the Treasury – is clearly to ease access. Whether the issuing banks will be interested in taking advantage of the new rules is less clear. Cross border offerings into Europe will still be subject to the more restrictive EU rules as far as EU investors are concerned. In order to tap retail investor demand, issuing banks will have to be willing to pay the retail investor platforms a distribution fee. Given that spreads on issuing bonds are tight, that may not be attractive if they are confident of being able to sell bonds to their institutional clients without help. Some of the retail platforms in the past have been inflexible about making offerings of new shares available to private investors, presumably concerned about legal risks (though they have been happy to push funds!). Moreover, there is very little expertise amongst advisors, who have grown up in a culture dominated by equities and funds and have little bond expertise (unlike say in the USA, where Municipal Bonds remain a mainstay of retail investment).
We assume that change will happen first in the smaller issues, but it will take the ecosystem a while to adapt to the new opportunities.
With regards to the secondary market, matters should become more straightforward, though liquidity in corporate bond issues can be erratic.
At LGB & Co. we have already been bringing corporate bond issues to investors’ attention. We are encouraged by the changes which would further complement our proprietary deal flow and expand our offering as the market develops.
There are few signs of bond vigilantism here – so far. Although corporate bond spreads spiked up during the Trump tariff shock in the spring of 2025, they ended a little lower than at the end of 2024. Spreads matter because you can lose money in corporate bonds even if interest rates move down if spreads- the premium over equivalent maturity government bond prices- go up. Over the last few years the trend has been down:
(Source – St. Louis Federal Reserve. Option adjusted spreads)
US corporate borrowers raised more than $95bn from 55 investment-grade bond deals just in the first full week of January, the highest weekly volume since May 2020 and the busiest start to a year on record.
There is no useful measure of sterling corporate bonds, so the closest proxy is the Crossover Index of European sub-investment grade bonds, which have also been offering a progressively lower premium to government bonds ever since spiking up after the Ukraine invasion. They now offer (as measured by the iTraxx Crossover 5 year index) under 2.5% premium, not the lowest it has ever been (which was at the end of 2019, around 2%) but at the low end:
Taking the index back further, there are higher spikes than 2022 at the beginning of the pandemic, in the early stages of Global Financial Crisis, and again in 2011 around “Black Monday”.
Looking at the corporate market does bring in more general considerations of spillover from equity market risk. This became painfully evident in the global financial crisis because the ability of firms to refinance through the equity market is an important assurance of creditworthiness, and if it goes, then the price of debt rises. So, perhaps we should at the low level of the VIX market, which measures volatility in the US equity market, and is seen as a proxy for risk aversion – it shows risk levels towards the low end of its recent range (though not particularly low in a longer perspective:
There is no need to rehearse the multiplicity of crises around the world, many of which have been exacerbated by the US President. At present, with equity markets around all-time highs and volatility low, they are not translating into a “risk off” mood. If for some reason that changes then corporate bonds are bound to feel some of the pain. In particular, the AI investment boom has entailed very large-scale raising of debt to finance Data Centres. A Bloomberg article on 2 February referred to the $3 trillion price tag for data centres and asked where the money would come from, suggested that the bond markets would be a major source – “projections are in the hundreds of billions of dollars”. Whilst this is largely a US phenomenon, if the US corporate bond market were to catch a cold, Europe and the UK would certainly be caught up.
If, however, you are following a laddered portfolio approach terming out your holdings and holding bonds to maturity, spikes in volatility may represent buying opportunities and market prices will not affect your overall return.
Our latest bond lists are available to view on the LGB Deal Hub. We remind you that these lists are not investment recommendations, instead they provide indicative offers and information about secondary corporate bonds from relatively well-known corporate names in GBP, USD and EUR where there is reasonable liquidity and which are tradable via the LGB Investments platform. As such, investors may want to consider these for their laddered fixed income portfolios and/or ISA portfolios. Please contact us if you would like to receive a firm offer and/or wish to trade, or wish to explore alternative options in bonds.
There are of course many well managed bond funds, and index-based ETFs. Investors should however bear in mind that the very heavy weighting of bonds issued by banks mean that ETFs will definitely and funds will tend to reflect that weighting. Whereas indexation – or closet index tracking – in equities will lead to a portfolio weighted towards the biggest companies, in bonds it leads to a portfolio weighted towards the heaviest borrowers – this has become a problem in the past, for example in the banks meltdown during the Global Financial Crisis, and investors may prefer to make their own decisions on risk.
In addition, funds do not qualify for any benefit from the QCB rules.
It is possible to pick up extra yield beyond that offered in the government bond markets by investing in corporate bonds, some of which may also qualify as QCBs in the same way as gilts do. The choice of offerings available to private investors will rise in the UK as a result of the recent reforms, and as issuing practice adapts to the new opportunities. One new opportunity will be to invest in floating rate notes as an alternative to leaving cash on deposit. With corporate bonds typically having longer maturities than MTNs, they are an important part of laddered portfolios and at LGB & Co. we look forward to being able to show investors a larger menu of investments.
Transaction Manager
Alexia Rottet joined LGB in October 2025 as a Transaction Manager. Prior to LGB, she gained real estate experience by participating in the valuation of a property portfolio for A2immo.ch SA as a financial analyst, as well as working at Form Structural Design as an office manager. Alexia holds an MA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and a BA in International Relations.
Relationship Manager
Ruby joined LGB in December 2024 as an Assistant Relationship Manager for our investing clients. She is responsible for all day-to-day transactions with investment clients and oversees the LGB Investments Platform and Deal Hub. Prior to LGB, Ruby worked at FHIRST, a start-up where she collaborated with the co-founders on revenue growth and improving client experiences. Ruby graduated with a First-Class degree in History from Durham University, and has obtained the CISI Level 4 Diploma in Investment Advice.
Finance Manager
Following a degree reading Chemistry at The Queen’s College, Oxford, Antonia trained to become a chartered accountant at a London-based audit firm. She then moved into the tax sector joining EY and completing the chartered tax adviser qualification. She then gained further experience working as a finance director within industry at a family office / hedge fund.
Programme size: £20m
Establishment Date: December 2017
Number of issues: 12
Sector: Marine tracking
Focus: Maritime surveillance and management
Programme size: £25m
Establishment Date: XX 2017
Number of issues: 20
Sector: Financial services
Focus: Loans and leasing
Associate Director
Omar joined LGB in February 2026 as an Associate Director in the Capital Markets team. He brings over five years of experience from NatWest, where he worked across the Leveraged Finance Origination and Portfolio Management teams. During this time, he supported a broad range of businesses from venture-backed to large-cap companies, with a primary focus on the mid-market. His experience was sector agnostic, and the majority of the companies he worked with were sponsor-backed, giving him extensive exposure to private equity-led transactions and capital structures. Omar holds a degree in Accounting and Finance from The London School of Economics & Political Science and is a Chartered Banker.
Adviser
Charles has played an important role in developing LGB & Co.’s investment approach by encouraging a focus on investing in businesses with strong IP or know-how with recurring revenue business models that can prosper throughout economic cycles. Charles brings over 30 years’ experience of investing in privately-owned and publicly-listed small and mid-market companies. He is a director of Larpent Newton & Co. and Hygea VCT plc. Charles qualified as a Chartered Accountant at Peat Marwick, now part of KPMG.
Adviser
Lisa has worked with LGB since 2015 in supporting the on-going cultural and organisational development of the firm, providing advice on strategic people matters. Since 2006, Lisa has been running her own consultancy and executive coaching business, People Possibilities Ltd. Her work is focused on supporting clients at an organisational, team and individual level to enable high performance,improve leadership capability and effect cultural and behavioural change. Previously Lisa has held senior HR leadership positions with Schroders, ABN AMRO and HSBC. Lisa graduated from the University of Birmingham with an honours degree in International Relations & French. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and a qualified Executive Coach.
Chairman
Simon became non-executive Chairman of the Board of LGB & Co. with a focus on growth and strategic initiatives in December 2025. Simon has extensive experience in capital markets and wealth management. He previously ran the client and investment business of Heartwood and became Chief Executive in 2008. He led its well-regarded acquisition by Handelsbanken in 2013. Simon subsequently became NED and Chair of AIM-listed WH Ireland Group PLC. He was also asked to represent the wealth management sector on the FCA Smaller Business Practitioner Panel from 2013-2016.
Associate Director
Megan joined LGB in 2021 as a Relationship Manager. She is responsible for all day-to-day transactions with investment clients and oversees the LGB Investments Platform and Deal Hub. Prior to LGB, Megan worked at Puma Investments, a tax-efficient investment provider, in the sales and investor services team. Megan graduated from the University of Bath with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, and has obtained the CISI Level 4 Diploma in Investment Advice.
Managing Director
Simone joined LGB in 2012 and is responsible for LGB & Co.’s business with institutional investors, wealth managers and sophisticated private investors. Simone’s team provides access to a range of compelling investment opportunities with a particular emphasis on structuring laddered portfolios of fixed income. In addition, the team manages portfolios of clients who have entered into advisory agreements with LGB Investments, and advises the fund managers of the Guernsey-based LGB SME Private Debt Fund. Prior to joining LGB & Co., Simone worked in the institutional fixed income department of Citigroup Global Markets. She began her career at Citigroup Private Bank in Geneva. Simone graduated from the University of Lausanne with a degree in HEC, Business Administration. She is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investments and a Director of LGB.
CEO
Cedric was appointed CEO in July 2022 after a period of 18 months as a COO. Cedric spent 15 years working on the energy and commodities sales and trading desks for global banks (BNP Paribas, BAML and MUFG). He gained extensive international exposure, being based in London and Singapore and covering transactions in all geographic regions. Cedric graduated from Global Executive MBA at INSEAD in 2018 and started working in the capital markets space for growth-stage companies. He is also a director of LGB.
Managing Director, Capital Markets
Andrew founded LGB & Co. in 2005 and is managing the Capital Markets team. He has a particular focus on the development of strategic relationships with corporate clients and business partners. Prior to founding LGB & Co., Andrew was a Managing Director at Citigroup Global Markets, where he was responsible for its fixed-income business with private banks and retail institutions. Earlier in his career Andrew worked at Schroders in London and Tokyo. Andrew graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Modern History. He is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.