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

• U.S. market convertibles issuance totals $12.05 billion year to date

• April U.S. market convertibles issuance $4.02 billion in nine deals

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, April 30 - J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. remains atop the convertible bond league tables for the year to date, but Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. rose to become the No.1 underwriter for April, having priced $1.15 billion in one deal, or 28.6% of total convertibles issuance for April, according to data compiled by Prospect News.

Morgan Stanley was the bookrunner for Popular Inc.'s $1.15 billion of convertible common equivalent securities, which priced April 13. That deal wasn't included in the new issuance tallies of Barclays Capital or Citigroup, which got totals of $2.626 billion in seven deals and $2.87 billion in eight deals, respectively, for April.

The Popular issue is expected to be mandatorily converted to stock in the short term - probably within three months, pending a shareholder vote - and has no optionality like a typical convertible, an analyst said as the reason for it not being included by Barclays or Citi.

For the year to date, total convertibles issuance stands at $12.05 billion in 35 deals.

JPMorgan ranks first among underwriters for the year to date, having sold $2.84 billion in 17 deals, totaling 23.6% of the issuance. Morgan Stanley is second with $1.69 billion in six deals, or 14% of the total, and Bank of America, which was previously in second place but is now No. 3 among U.S. market convertible underwriters, sold $1.60 billion in nine deals, or 13.3% of the total.

Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse are Nos. 4, 5 and 6 for the year to date. And Citigroup, typically in the first tier, is No. 9, with 4% of the total in six deals.

April volume was lackluster, but valuations were good, according to a Barclays Capital month-end report on new issuance. In addition to Popular, Barclays didn't include a $260 million add-on from DryShips Inc. to its new issuance total.

In addition to Popular's $1 billion-plus deal, MGM Mirage also priced a $1.15 billion offering of cash pay senior notes on April 16.

Also notable was the number of issuers in the financial sector for both April and the year to date. Financials have totaled 40.5% of new issuance for April and 33% of new issues for the year to date. Last year, materials and industrials were dominating the new issue scene for the same period of 2009, according to Barclays Capital.

In April, MGIC Investment Corp.'s $300 million 5% convertible issue, which was brought by Goldman Sachs, was well-received by the market, as was PMI Group Inc.'s $261 million or 4.5% convertible senior notes, brought by Credit Suisse and Bank of America, and Synovus Financial Corp.'s $300 million of 8.25% mandatories brought by JPMorgan.

Year to date, U.S. market

2009 Comparables

	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	2.837	17	23.55%	1	1.714	10	21.63%
2	Morgan Stanley	1.685	6	13.99%	4	0.948	5	11.97%
3	Bank of America	1.603	9	13.31%	11	0.147	2	1.85%
4	Deutsche Bank	1.061	7	8.80%	6	0.752	6	9.49%
5	Goldman Sachs	0.885	4	7.34%	2	1.170	6	14.77%
6	Credit Suisse	0.857	6	7.11%	7	0.584	4	7.37%
7	ABG Sundal	0.750	1	6.23%
8	Barclays	0.529	4	4.39%	10	0.201	2	2.53%
9	Citigroup	0.485	6	4.02%	3	0.974	8	12.30%
10	UBS	0.324	4	2.69%
	Total	12.048	35	7.923	22
	Average size:	0.344	0.360
April, U.S. market
					2009 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Morgan Stanley	1.150	1	28.62%	3	0.496	3	11.27%
2	JPMorgan	0.713	3	17.73%	2	0.917	5	20.83%
3	Deutsche Bank	0.530	2	13.19%	4	0.375	4	8.52%
4	Bank of America	0.418	2	10.40%	10	0.147	2	3.33%
5	Barclays	0.388	2	9.64%	11	0.100	1	2.27%
6	Goldman Sachs	0.300	1	7.47%	1	0.960	4	21.82%
7	Piper Jaffray	0.165	1	4.11%
8	Credit Suisse	0.131	1	3.25%	9	0.182	2	4.13%
9	Citigroup	0.125	1	3.11%	5	0.340	4	7.73%
10	RBS	0.100	1	2.49%
	Total	4.018	9	4.401	10
	Average size:	0.446	0.440
Year to date, global
					2009 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	JPMorgan	4.394	25	18.28%	3	1.901	12	13.64%
2	Morgan Stanley	3.768	12	15.67%	1	2.109	8	15.13%
3	Bank of America	2.336	12	9.72%	14	0.147	2	1.05%
4	Credit Suisse	1.874	14	7.79%	8	0.808	6	5.80%
5	Deutsche Bank	1.327	10	5.52%	9	0.752	6	5.40%
6	Goldman Sachs	1.100	6	4.57%	2	2.020	7	14.50%
7	Citigroup	1.002	10	4.17%	5	1.153	10	8.27%
8	ABG Sundal	0.964	3	4.01%
9	UBS	0.754	8	3.14%
10	Barclays	0.694	6	2.89%	10	0.504	5	3.61%
	Total	24.041	87	13.935	35
	Average size:	0.276	0.398
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 (for U.S. deals), or all underwritten offerings (global deals).

• 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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