European Leveraged Finance Market – September Update

A Democratic sweep may increase political gridlock, but history suggests limited market impact, with resilient US growth, strong corporate profitability and consumers remaining more important drivers for investors.

The 2026 Budget brought limited headline change but potentially significant long-term implications, particularly for business owners, property investors and savers, through higher tax rates, new Founders Relief and company reforms.

The Budget delivers modest fiscal changes with limited portfolio impact, while reinforcing the UK’s manageable debt outlook, although its collection of smaller measures appears driven more by politics than economics.

How much AI infrastructure does the world need - and how is it going to be funded? Rothschild & Co Redburn's Global Head of Technology Alex Haissl joins Chief Strategist George Karamanos to explore the scale of the data centre buildout, the financing structures underpinning it and the prospects for sustainable returns. They discuss the balance between training and inference, the importance of enterprise adoption, and what credit markets and open-source competition could signal for the next phase of AI investment.

The built environment must balance decarbonisation, climate resilience and affordability, with collaboration across housebuilders, policymakers, investors and suppliers essential to creating sustainable, resilient homes that deliver long-term value for communities.

The third quarter of 2026 ultimately confirmed two trends that may appear contradictory. On the one hand, the European economy continued to prove more resilient than expected, with a gradual improvement in activity indicators, the initial materialisation of German fiscal support measures, and strengthening earnings momentum.