A surge in investor appetite for high yield debt is allowing companies to refinance and stay afloat without the need to restructure, closing the door on a potentially lucrative source of fees for firms which specialise in restructuring advice.

High-yield debt issuance in Europe stands at $42.6bn for the year to date - a record for this stage in the year and already well ahead of the $38.2bn issued for the whole of 2009, according to figures from data provider Dealogic.