Barclays remains top U.S. structured products agent in year to date

By Emma Trincal

New York, Feb. 26 - Barclays continued to hold the top underwriting spot for the year to date. The bank has issued $3.57 billon so far this year, or 40.17% of the total issuance.

While Barclays also topped the yearly league tables during the same period last year, its market share was higher then with 58.69% of the total.

Coming in behind Barclays for the year were JPMorgan with $1.35 billion, or 15.16% of the total, and Merrill Lynch with $1.31 billion and 14.71% of the U.S. market share, according to data compiled by Prospect News.

However, these figures are based on the latest available data on Friday. Some firms, in particular Merrill Lynch, tend to price their deals at the very end of the month, which may create slight data discrepancies between the end and the beginning of each month.

Good beginning

The year 2010 is off to a record start compared to prior years and jumped by almost 24% with $8.88 billion sold so far this year versus $7.18 billion during the first two months of last year.

On a monthly basis though, February's issuance total of $2.60 billion pales compared to last year, which recorded $4.10 billion during that month.

JPMorgan leads February

In February, JPMorgan took the first slot with $606 million sold, pushing down Barclays to second place with $526 million, switching positions from last year. Goldman Sachs moved up by three notches to third with $394 million from No. 6 in February of last year. Merrill Lynch, which was No. 3 for the comparable month last year, was pushed down to No. 4. Again, monthly rankings are subject to last-minute changes due to late reporting on the part of some issuers - in particular Merrill Lynch - which tend to price at the very end of the month.

Because interest rate products continue to represent a small slice of the issuance pie - $526 million so far this year, or just about 6% of the total - the first six agents classified under the "all structured products" grouping are ranked exactly in the same order as those in the "all products excluding interest rates" category.

However, the league tables differ for equity-only products. Merrill Lynch so far knocked JPMorgan into second place by a very small margin with $979 million sales, or more than a quarter of the total equity-only issuance, versus $908 million for JPMorgan.

Equity deals have made a significant push so far this year with $4.01 billion sold, almost twice more the $2.13 billion sold at the same time last year.

Large deals

The biggest deals of the year came out in January, with two issues offered by Barclays of its popular 0% iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures exchange-traded notes. The bank priced one deal for $1 billion early in January followed by a $1.5 billion sale two weeks later.

Agents brought to market seven deals in excess of $100 million so far this year, including two in February, which both priced north of $125 million.

One was Bank of America Corp.'s $142.4 million sale of 10% STEP Income Securities linked to the share price of Ford Motor Co. due March 7, 2011. Additionally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. priced $142.77 million of ETNs due May 24, 2024 linked to the volume-weighted average price level of the Alerian MLP index.

In style

Some of the most popular structures involved a payout comprising a minimum contingent coupon. Goldman Sachs successfully executed a sale of $73.83 million of S&P 500 index-linked trigger notes due Aug. 25, 2011 following this model.

Currency deals, while not the most popular - they account for approximately 5% of the issuance this year - have received recent attention with the deepening of the euro woes due to Greece's sovereign debt crisis.

Some issuers were able to tap into the trend by selling deals that made bullish bets on the dollar, such as Goldman Sachs' $51.76 million sale of currency linked notes due Sept. 22, 2011 tied to the performance of the dollar versus the euro sold for Eksportfinans ASA.

Year to date, all structured products

2009 Comparables

	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Barclays	3.568	442	40.17%	1	4.213	85	58.69%
2	JPMorgan	1.346	143	15.16%	3	0.849	138	11.83%
3	Merrill Lynch	1.306	37	14.71%	2	0.881	31	12.27%
4	Goldman Sachs	0.750	47	8.44%	5	0.237	22	3.29%
5	Morgan Stanley	0.612	46	6.89%	4	0.331	40	4.61%
6	UBS	0.403	55	4.54%	6	0.198	38	2.76%
7	Citigroup	0.260	24	2.92%	7	0.114	10	1.59%
8	Deutsche Bank	0.229	23	2.58%	8	0.086	17	1.20%
9	RBC	0.155	116	1.75%	10	0.051	56	0.71%
10	Wells Fargo	0.076	21	0.86%
	Total	8.882	1073	7.178	542
	Average size:	0.008	0.013
Year to date, all structured products, excluding interest rates
					2009 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Barclays	3.481	429	41.54%	1	4.212	84	59.99%
2	JPMorgan	1.346	143	16.07%	3	0.849	138	12.10%
3	Merrill Lynch	1.227	32	14.64%	2	0.881	31	12.54%
4	Goldman Sachs	0.734	44	8.75%	6	0.187	21	2.66%
5	Morgan Stanley	0.385	35	4.59%	4	0.250	34	3.56%
6	UBS	0.369	51	4.40%	5	0.196	37	2.80%
7	Deutsche Bank	0.229	23	2.74%	8	0.083	16	1.18%
8	Citigroup	0.228	21	2.73%	7	0.097	8	1.38%
9	RBC	0.129	108	1.54%	10	0.051	56	0.73%
10	Wells Fargo	0.076	21	0.91%
	Total	8.379	1025	7.021	529
	Average size:	0.008	0.013
Year to date, stock, equity index structured products
					2009 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Merrill Lynch	0.979	20	24.44%	2	0.456	17	21.44%
2	JPMorgan	0.908	90	22.66%	1	0.752	124	35.36%
3	Barclays	0.882	399	22.00%	3	0.181	68	8.54%
4	Goldman Sachs	0.469	32	11.71%	5	0.138	17	6.48%
5	Citigroup	0.221	17	5.52%	7	0.094	7	4.44%
6	UBS	0.139	38	3.47%	4	0.174	29	8.19%
7	Morgan Stanley	0.125	6	3.11%	6	0.114	21	5.38%
8	RBC	0.105	100	2.63%	12	0.031	51	1.44%
9	Wells Fargo	0.076	20	1.90%
10	Credit Suisse	0.046	11	1.15%	11	0.032	17	1.49%
	Total	4.007	804	2.125	422
	Average size:	0.005	0.005
February, all structured products
					2009 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	0.606	66	23.33%	2	0.512	71	12.50%
2	Barclays	0.526	211	20.25%	1	2.596	32	63.37%
3	Goldman Sachs	0.394	29	15.18%	6	0.088	10	2.15%
4	Merrill Lynch	0.323	10	12.45%	3	0.326	14	7.95%
5	Morgan Stanley	0.271	23	10.42%	4	0.217	22	5.31%
6	UBS	0.148	29	5.68%	5	0.101	19	2.47%
7	Deutsche Bank	0.102	13	3.93%	8	0.066	10	1.61%
8	RBC	0.087	62	3.35%	9	0.045	43	1.09%
9	Citigroup	0.071	13	2.74%	7	0.077	7	1.89%
10	Credit Suisse	0.028	11	1.08%	11	0.020	9	0.50%
	Total	2.597	503	4.096	267
	Average size:	0.005	0.015
February, all structured products, excluding interest rates
					2009 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	0.606	66	25.50%	2	0.512	71	12.75%
2	Barclays	0.515	205	21.67%	1	2.595	31	64.63%
3	Goldman Sachs	0.382	27	16.07%	6	0.088	10	2.19%
4	Merrill Lynch	0.264	6	11.11%	3	0.326	14	8.11%
5	Morgan Stanley	0.171	16	7.18%	4	0.157	18	3.92%
6	UBS	0.128	27	5.40%	5	0.101	19	2.52%
7	Deutsche Bank	0.102	13	4.29%	7	0.063	9	1.56%
8	RBC	0.072	58	3.01%	9	0.045	43	1.11%
9	Citigroup	0.069	12	2.89%	8	0.060	5	1.51%
10	Credit Suisse	0.028	11	1.18%	11	0.020	9	0.51%
	Total	2.376	476	4.015	259
	Average size:	0.005	0.016
February, stock, equity index structured products
					2009 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Barclays	0.465	197	25.71%	4	0.081	25	8.52%
2	JPMorgan	0.446	43	24.66%	1	0.426	64	44.90%
3	Goldman Sachs	0.301	23	16.62%	6	0.046	7	4.86%
4	Merrill Lynch	0.264	6	14.59%	2	0.113	5	11.88%
5	UBS	0.082	21	4.54%	3	0.095	16	10.02%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.071	2	3.92%	7	0.044	9	4.67%
7	RBC	0.064	57	3.51%	9	0.024	39	2.55%
8	Citigroup	0.062	8	3.40%	5	0.060	5	6.37%
9	Wells Fargo	0.021	5	1.14%
10	Deutsche Bank	0.016	5	0.88%	8	0.026	7	2.76%
	Total	1.810	391	0.949	202
	Average size:	0.005	0.005
Prospect News Structured Products Manager Rankings

Criteria

• The tables include all dollar-denominated offerings sold in the United States as public, Rule 144A or similar deals reported to Prospect News.

• Offerings are included in the time period in which they price.

• Amounts are based on the total sales price (face amount multiplied by the offering price). The full amount is credited to the lead manager. For multiple managers, the total value is divided equally among all the firms.

• Each tranche is counted as a separate deal.

• Notes are included that convert into or are linked to one or more stocks, indexes, commodities, currencies, interest rates or other assets. For interest-rate deals, callables with no further structure are excluded.

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