Citigroup unseats JPMorgan as top U.S. market convertibles underwriter for year to date

• U.S. convertibles issuance jumps to $13.45 billion for year to date

• March U.S. convertibles issuance totals $9.91 billion in 21 deals

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, March 31 - After underwriting 25% of March's new issuance, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. unseated J.P. Morgan Securities LLC as top underwriter for the year to date, a position the latter held for the better part of the last year, according to Prospect News data.

Total U.S. new issuance surged by nearly fourfold to $13.45 billion for the year to date through March, up from $3.5 billion for the year to date through February.

That $13.45 billion total was made up of 35 deals and was 40% better than the comparable 2010 year-to-date period when $8.03 billion of new issuance in 26 deals priced.

For the year so far, Citigroup has underwritten $3.16 billion of new issuance in 11 deals, accounting for 23.5% of total volume. The lion's share of Citigroup's total came in March when the New York bank underwrote $2.5 billion in seven deals.

Back to the year so far, Goldman Sachs & Co. took second place with $2.67 billion in seven deals, for nearly 20% of the total; and JPMorgan was No. 3, with $1.87 billion in 13 deals, accounting for 14% of the total.

For March alone, there was $9.91 billion of new U.S. issuance in 21 deals, which was nearly 50% higher than March 2010 when $5.17 billion in 16 deals was priced.

Among March's notable deals, MetLife Inc. priced $3.3 billion proceeds of three-year mandatory convertible equity units with a 5% coupon. That paper was brought by Goldman and Citigroup, the month's two top underwriters.

Citigroup was also on the $1.4 billion Cemex SAB de CV deal of 3.25% convertibles priced March 10.

Also notable in terms of size, Health Care REIT Inc. priced $625 million of convertible perpetual preferred shares to yield 6.5%, which was sold via joint bookrunners UBS, Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo.

Another notable preferred came at the end of the month: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. priced $435 million of three-year mandatory convertible preferreds for a 5.875% dividend, via Goldman, JPMorgan, Citigroup and Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc.

Illumina Inc. priced a pretty large $800 million five-year convertibles at a reoffered price of 98.25, a discount to par, with a 0.25% coupon, and that paper lagged in secondary dealings. The Rule 144A notes were sold via Morgan Stanley and Goldman.

And finally, Old Republic International Corp. priced a hugely upsized $500 million of seven-year convertible senior notes after the market close Wednesday with a 3.75% yield via Morgan Stanley and UBS. That deal was increased from a planned $250 million.

Year to date, U.S. market

2010 Comparables

	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Citigroup	3.163	11	23.51%	9	0.320	5	3.99%
2	Goldman Sachs	2.665	7	19.81%	5	0.585	3	7.28%
3	JPMorgan	1.867	13	13.87%	1	2.085	14	25.96%
4	Morgan Stanley	1.000	5	7.43%	6	0.535	5	6.67%
5	Merrill Lynch	0.924	9	6.86%	2	1.264	8	15.75%
6	UBS	0.757	5	5.63%	8	0.324	4	4.03%
7	Barclays	0.674	6	5.01%	10	0.221	3	2.76%
8	Deutsche Bank	0.532	5	3.95%	7	0.531	5	6.61%
9	Wells Fargo	0.321	3	2.39%
10	BBVA	0.167	2	1.24%	14	0.079	1	0.99%
10	Santander	0.167	2	1.24%	16	0.079	1	0.99%
10	HSBC	0.167	2	1.24%	17	0.079	1	0.99%
10	RBS	0.167	2	1.24%	13	0.079	1	0.99%
10	BNP	0.167	2	1.24%	15	0.079	1	0.99%
10	ING	0.167	2	1.24%
	Total	13.454	35	8.030	26
	Average size:	0.384	0.309
Year to date, global
					2010 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Citigroup	3.818	14	16.34%	8	0.735	8	3.99%
2	Goldman Sachs	2.968	9	12.71%	6	0.800	5	4.34%
3	JPMorgan	2.255	16	9.65%	1	3.642	22	19.75%
4	Morgan Stanley	1.977	7	8.46%	2	2.618	11	14.20%
5	Merrill Lynch	1.081	10	4.63%	4	1.389	9	7.54%
6	Barclays	0.954	7	4.08%	14	0.283	4	1.54%
7	BNP	0.869	6	3.72%	12	0.388	4	2.11%
8	UBS	0.757	5	3.24%	7	0.754	8	4.09%
9	Deutsche Bank	0.715	6	3.06%	9	0.695	7	3.77%
10	Credit Suisse	0.512	4	2.19%	3	1.743	13	9.45%
	Total	23.362	65	18.437	70
	Average size:	0.359	0.263
March, U.S. market
					2010 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Citigroup	2.513	7	25.36%	6	0.234	3	4.53%
2	Goldman Sachs	2.267	4	22.87%	2	0.585	3	11.31%
3	UBS	0.757	5	7.64%	7	0.229	2	4.42%
4	Merrill Lynch	0.677	7	6.82%	3	0.574	5	11.11%
5	Morgan Stanley	0.668	2	6.74%	4	0.490	4	9.48%
6	JPMorgan	0.610	7	6.16%	1	1.711	10	33.09%
7	Barclays	0.574	5	5.79%	8	0.171	2	3.32%
8	Deutsche Bank	0.292	3	2.95%	5	0.486	4	9.40%
9	Wells Fargo	0.177	2	1.79%
10	BBVA	0.167	2	1.68%	11	0.079	1	1.54%
10	Santander	0.167	2	1.68%	12	0.079	1	1.54%
10	BNP	0.167	2	1.68%	13	0.079	1	1.54%
10	HSBC	0.167	2	1.68%	14	0.079	1	1.54%
10	RBS	0.167	2	1.68%	15	0.079	1	1.54%
10	ING	0.167	2	1.68%
	Total	9.910	21	5.170	16
	Average size:	0.472	0.323
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 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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