MarketsMuse.com fixed income coverage profiling below zero interest rates being offered on a growing assortment of freshly-minted European corporate bonds, as well as sovereign debt issues is courtesy of extract from WSJ story by Josie Cox, Ben Edwards and Anupreeta Das.

Investors snapped up a half-billion euros of French utility bonds that will pay them no interest, a groundbreaking deal that shows how corporations are rushing to take advantage of Europe’s efforts to keep interests rates low to try to revive the Continent’s economy. (Further reading: ECB gives start date for bond buying).

Next to tap the market may be Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which plans to raise around €3 billion, or $3.4 billion, in its first euro-denominated bond sale as soon as Thursday, according to a person familiar with the company.

The €500 million bond sale by GDF Suez SA came a day before the European Central Bank was scheduled to spell out details of how it will buy €60 billion a month in government and corporate bonds to fuel economic growth by pumping money in the region’s financial system.

In anticipation, investors have piled into European debt markets, pushing yields on some government bonds below zero. Yields fall as bond prices rise. The GDF Suez deal raises the prospect that companies may soon find investors willing to accept negative yields on bonds, essentially paying the borrowers to hold their debt.

With government bonds that trade at negative yields, investors are betting that further price gains will make up for the lost interest.

For the full story from the WSJ, please click here