Morgan Stanley, the US investment bank, yesterday led a €2.37bn ($2.9bn) junk bond fundraising for Ineos, the UK chemicals group. It was the US bank's second multi-billion junk bond so far this year.

The deal is also the largest high yield bond from a European issuer and follows the $3.6bn raised last week by US power generator NRG's, itself the second biggest junk bond on record.