Banc of America still number one U.S. market convertibles underwriter year to date

• U.S. market convertibles issuance totals $61.72 billion year to date

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, Sept. 30 - Banc of America Securities LLC is still the top ranking U.S. market convertible underwriter for the year to date, accounting for 18.5% of total issuance as of Sept. 30, according to data compiled by Prospect News.

B of A was an underwriter for $11.44 billion in 24 deals for the year to date.

Not only did the bank's rank remain unchanged from August, but its issuance level didn't change either because it had no new deals in the last month given the virtual shutdown of the primary market in the aftermath of the Fannie and Freddie government takeover, the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bankruptcy, the American International Group Inc. bailout, and linkups like Bank of America with Merrill Lynch.

Total convertibles issuance of $61.72 billion for the year to date lagged last year's $70.41 billion year-to-date volume by 12%. In number of deals, 2008 has seen 106 deals for the year to date, compared to last year's 160 deals for the same period.

However, September's three deals, which totaled $1.2 billion, left it only slightly behind September 2007, when $1.7 billion of new issuance hit the market.

September's three deals included: Tyson Foods Inc.'s $450 million of five-year convertibles via joint bookrunners J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co.; Mylan Inc.'s upsized $500 million of seven-year convertible notes via joint bookrunners Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch; and Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd.'s upsized $155 million of convertible notes via Goldman Sachs.

Several deals were announced but then canceled, including homebuilder NVR Inc.'s proposed $325 million of 30-year convertible senior notes.

Citigroup, which has held the No. 2 U.S. market convertible underwriter rank for much of the year, remained in that spot with its unchanged $9.26 billion in 22 deals, representing 15% of the $61.72 billion total.

Lehman Brothers remained in third place with a 13.72% share of total issuance, in 12 deals totaling $8.47 billion. Barclays has now taken over Lehman's capital markets division, and members of Lehman's convertible research group have successfully transitioned to the new company.

JPMorgan was No. 4 with 13.3% of total issuance, in $8.22 billion in issuance in 31 deals, followed by Goldman Sachs with a 12% share, in 22 deals for $7.43 billion.

JPMorgan was the top underwriter for the third quarter, with 20.6% of total issuance for the last three months.

Year to date

2007 Comparables

	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Banc of America	11.441	24	18.54%	5	5.941	30	8.44%
2	Citigroup	9.256	22	15.00%	1	10.800	32	15.34%
3	Lehman	8.469	12	13.72%	7	4.923	17	6.99%
4	JPMorgan	8.218	31	13.31%	2	10.342	39	14.69%
5	Goldman Sachs	7.430	22	12.04%	9	4.379	21	6.22%
6	Merrill Lynch	2.901	19	4.70%	6	5.520	23	7.84%
7	UBS	2.786	17	4.51%	10	2.939	18	4.17%
8	Morgan Stanley	2.671	18	4.33%	4	7.644	14	10.86%
9	Wachovia	2.526	6	4.09%	12	0.890	6	1.26%
10	Credit Suisse	2.421	17	3.92%	8	4.387	16	6.23%
	Total	61.720	106	70.410	160
	Average size:	0.582	0.440
Third quarter
					2007 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	1.424	7	20.62%	1	2.366	8	19.18%
2	Banc of America	1.188	5	17.20%	4	0.993	6	8.05%
3	Goldman Sachs	1.083	5	15.69%	5	0.985	4	7.98%
4	UBS	0.816	3	11.81%	7	0.625	3	5.07%
5	Merrill Lynch	0.685	3	9.92%	11	0.475	1	3.85%
6	Morgan Stanley	0.550	3	7.96%	9	0.500	1	4.05%
7	Credit Suisse	0.396	4	5.73%	13	0.241	3	1.95%
8	Citigroup	0.378	3	5.48%	2	2.018	7	16.36%
9	Wachovia	0.233	1	3.38%	12	0.360	2	2.92%
10	ABN	0.046	1	0.67%
10	Deutsche Bank	0.046	1	0.67%	6	0.676	3	5.48%
	Total	6.905	18	12.337	29
	Average size:	0.384	0.425
September
					2007 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Merrill Lynch	0.512	2	42.71%	1	0.475	1	27.24%
2	Goldman Sachs	0.463	2	38.54%	3	0.250	1	14.34%
3	JPMorgan	0.225	1	18.75%	6	0.108	2	6.20%
	Total	1.200	3	1.743	7
	Average size:	0.400	0.249
Prospect News Convertibles Underwriter Rankings

Criteria

• The tables include all underwritten dollar-denominated offerings sold in the United States as public or Rule 144A 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 bookrunner (or lead manager if no bookrunners). For multiple bookrunners (or lead managers), the total value is divided equally among all the firms.

• Each tranche is counted as a separate deal.

• Bonds are included that convert into the issuer's or another company's stock or the cash equivalent; bonds that convert into other bonds are excluded.

• Structured products issued by an investment bank and exchangeables for or linked to another company's stock are excluded.

• Units made up of a bond and stock are included; units made up of a bond and warrants are excluded.

• Preferred issues are included using the same criteria as for bonds.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.