BofA Merrill Lynch top U.S. convertibles underwriter for year to date

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

• April U.S. convertibles issuance totals $1.88 billion in six deals

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, April 30 - BofA Merrill Lynch was top convertible bond underwriter for the first four months of the year, bringing $2.66 billion in 14 deals, or 20% of total new issuance for 2013 to date, according to data compiled by Prospect News.

Goldman Sachs & Co. was the No. 2 convertibles underwriter for the year to date, with $2.13 billion in 12 deals, or 16% of the total.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC took the third slot with $1.57 billion of new issuance for the year so far, with 14 deals, accounting for 12% of the total, while Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC was fourth with $1.57 billion in new issuance in eight deals, accounting for 10% of total issuance.

Barclays and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. ranked fifth and sixth, with $1.13 billion and $973 million in issuance, respectively.

Rounding out the top 10 underwriters of U.S. issuance were Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) Inc., Credit Agricole CIB and Jefferies & Co.

In total, there was $13.45 billion in new issuance in 41 deals for the year to date, which was more than double from $5.83 billion in 19 deals for the first four months of 2012.

But for April alone, there was $1.88 billion in new issuance in six deals, which was lower compared to $2.26 billion in issuance in seven deals for April 2012.

Barclays was the top underwriter of U.S. convertible debt in April, with $377 million in three deals, accounting for 20% of total issuance. Credit Suisse was No. 2 with $287 million in four deals, or 15% of the total, and Citigroup was third $268 million in two deals for 14% of the total. BofA Merrill Lynch was a close fourth with $252 million in new issuance in three deals for 13% of the total.

Globally, there was $29.46 billion of new issuance in 85 deals for the year to date, which was, again, a vast improvement from $14.70 billion in new issuance in 66 deals for the first four months of 2012.

Lead underwriter globally was UBS AG, accounting for $3.39 billion in a total of 11 deals for an 11.5% share. BofA Merrill Lynch was No. 2 global underwriter with $2.97 billion in 17 deals, accounting for 10% of global issuance.

Among notable U.S. deals in the past month were: RTI International Metals Inc.'s upsized $402.5 million of 1.625% convertibles, which priced April 11 via Barclays and Citigroup as joint bookrunners; and Liberty Interactive LLC's upsized $850 million of 30-year exchangeable senior debentures, via joint bookrunners BNP Paribas, BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Wells Fargo, Barclays and Morgan Stanley.

U.S. market, year to date

2012 Comparables

	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Bank of America	2.663	14	19.80%	1	1.337	8	22.95%
2	Goldman Sachs	2.126	12	15.80%	2	1.122	2	19.26%
3	JPMorgan	1.572	14	11.69%	3	0.957	7	16.43%
4	Morgan Stanley	1.351	8	10.04%	4	0.809	6	13.88%
5	Barclays	1.127	8	8.38%	6	0.443	4	7.61%
6	Citigroup	0.973	9	7.23%	5	0.484	3	8.30%
7	Deutsche Bank	0.958	6	7.12%	9	0.077	1	1.32%
8	Credit Suisse	0.686	9	5.10%
9	Credit Agricole	0.562	1	4.18%
10	Jefferies	0.373	4	2.77%
	Total	13.454	41	5.826	19
	Average size:	0.328	0.307
U.S. market, April
					2012 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Barclays	0.377	3	20.13%	8	0.077	1	3.40%
2	Credit Suisse	0.287	4	15.28%
3	Citigroup	0.268	2	14.29%	5	0.150	1	6.65%
4	Bank of America	0.252	3	13.44%	4	0.225	2	9.97%
5	BNP	0.142	1	7.56%
5	Morgan Stanley	0.142	1	7.56%	1	0.725	4	32.12%
5	Wells Fargo	0.142	1	7.56%	3	0.227	3	10.04%
8	Goldman Sachs	0.044	1	2.33%	6	0.127	1	5.63%
8	JPMorgan	0.044	1	2.33%	2	0.650	3	28.80%
10	Piper Jaffray	0.037	1	2.00%
	Total	1.875	6	2.257	7
	Average size:	0.312	0.322
Global, year to date
					2012 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	UBS	3.389	11	11.50%	12	0.255	3	1.74%
2	Bank of America	2.967	17	10.07%	2	1.708	11	11.62%
3	Deutsche Bank	2.817	13	9.56%	5	1.043	10	7.10%
4	JPMorgan	2.682	21	9.10%	4	1.202	9	8.18%
5	Goldman Sachs	2.420	16	8.22%	1	2.265	6	15.41%
6	BNP	1.827	10	6.20%	33	0.071	1	0.48%
7	Morgan Stanley	1.767	9	6.00%	3	1.454	10	9.90%
8	Haitong	1.609	1	5.46%
9	Barclays	1.542	9	5.24%	7	0.736	6	5.01%
10	Citigroup	1.448	13	4.92%	6	0.974	7	6.62%
	Total	29.459	85	14.696	66
	Average size:	0.347	0.223
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.

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

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