Bond Investors Are Already Betting on Return to Normal Life

  • Airlines, real estate among best performers in Europe
  • Aviva warns optimism is overblown if demand problems linger
Photographer: Jeremy Suyker/Bloomberg
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It wasn’t so long ago that airliners and real estate companies were asking for emergency support and precautionary bank loans. Now investors are desperate to lend them money.

Bonds of EasyJet Plc and U.K. property manager Hammerson Plc are among the best performers in Europe this year. Investment-grade companies in the two sectors have sold almost $22 billion of debt in euros and sterling, the fastest pace of year-to-date issuance since at least 2010.