The European difference in corporate bonds

The European corporate bond market has one fundamental difference to the US. European companies are facing a wall of maturing debt during the next 3 years. The percentage of outstanding high yield bonds with a maturity of up to 3 years is above 40%, about twice the % seen in the US. This means that European companies will need to refinance earlier and probably at much higher rates than their US counterparts. This is bad news for many European companies, especially the so-called zombie companies that hardly generate enough profit to cover their increasing interest charge.