Morgan Stanley top U.S. market convertibles underwriter year to date

• U.S. convertibles issuance $7.2 billion in 17 deals year to date

• February U.S. convertibles issuance totals $2.07 billion

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, Feb. 28 - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC is top U.S. convertible bond underwriter for the first two months of the year, unseating Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, which was atop the charts in January, and bringing $2.07 billion in nine deals, or 29% of total new issuance for 2014 to date, according to data compiled by Prospect News.

Goldman Sachs & Co. is a distant second place as convertibles underwriter for the year to date for $836 million in four deals for 11.6% of the total.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is No. 3 with $775 million of new issuance for the year so far in five deals for 10.8% of the total, while Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. is fourth with $557 million of new issuance in three deals, accounting for 7.7% of total issuance.

BofA Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse, rank fifth and sixth, with $556 million and $545 million in issuance, respectively.

Rounding out the top 10 underwriters of U.S. issuance are Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Jefferies & Co., HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. and RBC Capital Markets.

In total there was $7.2 billion in new issuance in 17 deals for the first two months of the year, which is down from $8.06 billion in 23 deals for the first two months of 2013.

February rankings

Morgan Stanley was also the top underwriter of U.S. convertible debt for February alone, with $2.07 billion in nine deals, accounting for 29% of total issuance. Goldman Sachs was No. 2 with $836 million in four deals, or 11.6% of the total, and JPMorgan was third with $775 million in five deals for 10.8% of the total. Deutsche Bank, BofA Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse each had around $550 million in issuance in February.

Globally, there has been $13.22 billion of new issuance in 43 deals for the year to date, which was lower than $17.68 billion in new issuance in 49 deals for the first two months of 2013.

Lead underwriter globally is Morgan Stanley, accounting for $2.19 billion of the total in 10 deals, for a 16.6% share. JPMorgan is the No. 2 global underwriter with $1.37 billion in 10 deals, accounting for 10.4% of global issuance.

Notable deals

Among notable U.S. deals in the past month were: Tesla Motors Inc.'s upsized $2 billion of 0.25% five-year notes and 1.25% seven-year notes that came with a 42.5% premium and priced at the tight end of talk.

The Tesla deal was priced via Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank.

American Energy - Utica LLC, an affiliate of American Energy Partners LP, priced an upsized $750 million of 3.5% seven-year convertible subordinated notes in a pre-initial public offering deal that priced via Jefferies LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Goldman Sachs & Co. as joint bookrunners.

Akamai Technologies Inc. priced an upsized $600 million of five-year convertible senior notes in the middle of the month with a 0% coupon and 50% premium via bookrunner JPMorgan.

And at the beginning of February, Herbalife Ltd. priced $1 billion of 5.5-year convertible senior notes to yield 2% with a 25% premium, which was the cheap end of talk, and it was priced by BofA Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, HSBC and Morgan Stanley.

U.S. market, year to date

2013 Comparables

	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Morgan Stanley	2.069	9	28.73%	6	0.555	5	6.89%
2	Goldman Sachs	0.836	4	11.61%	1	1.553	9	19.26%
3	JPMorgan	0.775	5	10.76%	3	1.269	9	15.74%
4	Deutsche Bank	0.557	3	7.74%	4	0.923	5	11.45%
5	Bank of America	0.556	4	7.72%	2	1.536	7	19.04%
6	Credit Suisse	0.545	4	7.57%	8	0.266	4	3.30%
7	Citigroup	0.425	2	5.90%	7	0.543	5	6.73%
8	Jefferies	0.422	2	5.87%	9	0.235	2	2.91%
9	HSBC	0.287	1	3.99%
10	RBC	0.236	2	3.28%
	Total	7.201	17	8.063	23
	Average size:	0.424	0.351
Global, year to date
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Morgan Stanley	2.189	10	16.56%	7	0.971	6	5.49%
2	JPMorgan	1.373	10	10.39%	3	1.772	12	10.02%
3	Goldman Sachs	1.331	6	10.07%	2	1.847	13	10.45%
4	Bank of America	1.182	6	8.94%	4	1.754	9	9.92%
5	Citigroup	0.983	4	7.43%	6	1.018	9	5.76%
6	HSBC	0.958	4	7.25%	30	0.051	1	0.29%
7	Deutsche Bank	0.787	5	5.95%	1	2.782	12	15.74%
8	Credit Suisse	0.545	4	4.12%	12	0.450	5	2.54%
9	SG	0.511	4	3.86%	14	0.334	1	1.89%
10	BNP	0.454	4	3.43%	9	0.617	4	3.49%
	Total	13.217	43	17.680	49
	Average size:	0.307	0.361
U.S. market, February
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Morgan Stanley	2.069	9	28.73%	6	0.555	5	6.89%
2	Goldman Sachs	0.836	4	11.61%	1	1.553	9	19.26%
3	JPMorgan	0.775	5	10.76%	3	1.269	9	15.74%
4	Deutsche Bank	0.557	3	7.74%	4	0.923	5	11.45%
5	Bank of America	0.556	4	7.72%	2	1.536	7	19.04%
6	Credit Suisse	0.545	4	7.57%	8	0.266	4	3.30%
7	Citigroup	0.425	2	5.90%	7	0.543	5	6.73%
8	Jefferies	0.422	2	5.87%	9	0.235	2	2.91%
9	HSBC	0.287	1	3.99%
10	RBC	0.236	2	3.28%
	Total	7.201	17	8.063	23
	Average size:	0.424	0.351
Global, February
					2013 Comparables
	Underwriter	Amount	No.	Share	Rank	Amount	No.	Share
1	Morgan Stanley	2.011	8	31.57%	4	0.480	4	13.22%
2	Goldman Sachs	0.836	4	13.13%	2	0.630	5	17.34%
3	JPMorgan	0.650	4	10.20%	1	0.959	6	26.38%
4	Deutsche Bank	0.500	2	7.85%	8	0.128	2	3.52%
5	Citigroup	0.425	2	6.67%	5	0.353	3	9.71%
6	Jefferies	0.422	2	6.63%
7	Bank of America	0.374	2	5.87%	3	0.628	4	17.28%
8	Credit Suisse	0.338	2	5.30%	6	0.208	3	5.74%
9	HSBC	0.287	1	4.51%
10	RBC	0.236	2	3.71%
	Total	6.370	13	3.634	11
	Average size:	0.490	0.330
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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