JPMorgan top U.S. market convertibles underwriter year to date

• U.S. market convertibles issuance totals $2.91 billion year to date

• March convertibles issuance totals $2.11 billion in eight deals

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, March 31 - J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. was the top U.S. market convertibles underwriter for the first three months of 2009, with $682 million in four deals, accounting for 23.46% of total issuance, according to data compiled by Prospect News.

JPMorgan unseated Banc of America Securities LLC, which was the top issuer for the first three months of 2008.

For 2009, Citigroup was the number two U.S. market convertible underwriter, with four deals totaling $629 million, or 21.65% of the total, and Merrill Lynch was number three, running the books on three deals totaling $423 million, or 14.56% of the total.

Total new issuance for the first quarter of 2009 stands at $2.907 billion, compared with $19.139 billion for the first quarter of 2008 and $27.285 billion for the first quarter of 2007.

Nevertheless, March new issuance was a vast improvement to February new issuance, which stood at zero.

Also of note is that this year's deals are much smaller and not coming from the financial sector, which was a big source of issuance in the first half of last year.

For March 2009, there were $2.112 billion of convertibles in eight deals, compared to $3.804 billion tallied for the same month a year ago.

That amount does not include the two new deals that emerged for pricing on the last day of the month, Teradyne Inc.'s $150 million of convertibles via bookrunners Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch; and Ingersoll-Rand Holding Co. Ltd.'s downsized $250 million of convertibles via Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.

Goldman Sachs was notably absent from league tables this year until March 30 with the Teradyne and Ingersoll-Rand deals. UBS is also notably absent, having not printed a deal in 2009, after being among the top 10 underwriters in 2008, according to a sellside origination source.

"I think it's a matter of time and not indicative of dysfunction," the sellsider said of Goldman and UBS.

Convertibles players were very encouraged with the revival of the new issuance market in March. Not only did new deals come back, but most were upsized and priced at the tight end of talk.

"It creates a good backdrop to new issues to have them upsized and priced at better ranges," a convertibles source said.

Especially well liked were the new issues of Alcoa Inc. and Newell Rubbermaid Inc. Alcoa priced an upsized $500 million of five-year convertible to yield 5.25% with an initial conversion premium of 22.5% on March 19. The deal was placed by Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.

Newell Rubbermaid's $325 million of five-year convertibles to yield 5% with an initial conversion premium of 30% was also well-received. That deal, priced March 24, was placed by Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan with co-manager Friedman Billings Ramsey.

Year to date

2008 Comparables

	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	0.682	4	23.46%	4	1.252	10	6.54%
2	Citigroup	0.629	4	21.65%	2	3.721	7	19.44%
3	Merrill Lynch	0.423	3	14.56%	5	1.055	8	5.51%
4	Morgan Stanley	0.415	2	14.28%	9	0.310	3	1.62%
5	Deutsche Bank	0.372	2	12.79%	8	0.710	5	3.71%
6	Credit Suisse	0.250	1	8.60%	7	0.803	6	4.19%
7	Barclays	0.101	1	3.46%
8	Rodman & Renshaw	0.025	1	0.86%
9	Ziegler	0.010	2	0.34%
	Total	2.907	11	19.139	37
	Average size:	0.264	0.517
March
					2008 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	0.423	3	20.03%	1	0.940	8	24.71%
1	Merrill Lynch	0.423	3	20.03%	10	0.138	2	3.64%
3	Morgan Stanley	0.415	2	19.64%	12	0.037	1	0.99%
4	Citigroup	0.371	3	17.54%	7	0.229	3	6.02%
5	Credit Suisse	0.250	1	11.83%	6	0.253	2	6.64%
6	Deutsche Bank	0.120	1	5.68%	2	0.627	4	16.49%
7	Barclays	0.101	1	4.76%
8	Ziegler	0.010	2	0.47%
	Total	2.112	8	3.804	16
	Average size:	0.264	0.238
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.

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