Bonds boom in Europe as banks hoard cash

LONDON/MADRID: Abertis Infraestruturas SA, Spain's largest highway operator, has 20 years of revenue growth and an "excellent" risk profile from Standard & Poor's. Yet of the last 10 financing proposals it received from banks, none was for a loan.

"I've never in more than 15 years in business seen banks so unwilling to lend," said Jose Aljaro, chief financial officer at Barcelona-based Abertis. The company turned to the bond market, selling 1 billion euros ($1.5 billion) of seven- year notes in September.

For all the cash provided by the European Central Bank to ease the worst seizure in credit markets since World War II, financial institutions in the region are unwilling to lend, using the money instead to invest in the safest, most liquid government securities. Bond investors are offering money like never before as returns on corporate debt reach as much as 70 percent this year, according to Merrill Lynch & Co indexes.