Rolls-Royce, the UK aircraft engine maker, has sold £500m ($731m) bonds for the first time in 10 years, highlighting the urgent trend of corporate refinancing that is under way.

It comes after 72 companies in the FTSE 350 successfully refinanced nearly £30bn in syndicated bank debt in the first quarter of 2009, according to lawyers at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, using Bloomberg data.