Clifford Chance

As representative USD LIBOR rates ceased to be published from 30 June 2023, and with synthetic USD LIBOR rates for the relevant settings expected to be available only until 30 September 2024, businesses should be looking to actively transition away from LIBOR rates in their legacy debt and/or considering whether any legislative solutions are available to them.

There has been increasing focus on the use of distributed ledger technology in the world of debt security issuances. While this space continues to develop, there have been a few recent issuances of digital bonds in Europe, with several taking advantage of legislative 'sandboxes'. A number of European jurisdictions have been working to amend their legislative and regulatory frameworks with the aim of facilitating the issuance of such digital bonds in the future and with an eye on future technological developments.

An important consideration at the outset of a debt security issuance is identifying the listing venue, as this will have an impact on the nature and level of disclosure in the offering document and also the continuing obligations on the issuer going forwards. This Clifford Chance briefing compares some of the key requirements of the main listing venues in Europe.

Coming soon.

At a time of increasing interest rates, issuance of convertible bonds can be a useful option in a corporate treasurer's toolkit, as it has a number of advantages over a conventional bond issuance in a challenging economic environment. There can be varying practices and legal considerations across different European jurisdictions to bear in mind when contemplating the issuance of convertible bonds.

The EU Green Bond Standard has now been agreed with its application expected in late 2024. This reflects the EU's intention to create a gold standard label for green bonds. Of particular interest for any corporate with existing green bond issuance there are a number of significant deviations from existing green bond standards such as ICMA's Green Bond Principles, including in respect of the need to (i) align with the EU's 'Taxonomy', (ii) prepare pre- and post-issuance factsheets, and (iii) have an EU Prospectus Regulation-compliant prospectus.

Whilst a robust regulatory framework relating to ESG disclosure in IPO prospectuses remains a work in progress, there has been some movement in this direction as a number of recent IPOs have focused on ESG-related disclosures in their prospectuses. As ESG-related strategies become increasingly relevant for businesses, supplemented by new reporting requirements, we are likely to see more focus on prospectus disclosure for IPOs, including in respect of use of third-party ESG data and ratings.