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Euromoney's annual poll of capital markets' users and intermediaries is surprisingly different from the bookrunner league tables. Merrill Lynch is, by some margin, the number-one bookrunner for international bonds so far in 1996, but it is JP Morgan which tops our poll as the borrowers' favourite. In the league table, by contrast, JP Morgan is only fifth with just two-thirds of Merrill's volume.
JP Morgan's poll result is particularly impressive in the US domestic markets, where it rises to become the top US MTN house, overtaking the bulge bracket firms.
Merrill takes some honours in the poll: it retains its position as the top-rated firm overall in the US public markets and the favourite Euro-MTN dealer and arranger. It has also taken over as best arranger of private placements, a category in which it ranked only sixth last year. But in Eurobonds, Merrill places only equal sixth, down from second last year.
European banks, which have been building their investment banking operations in the past 18 months, show signs of progress. In the ranking of Eurobond houses, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell is fifth, up from eighth equal last year. Indeed, JP Morgan is the only American our borrowers rank among the top five Eurobond lead-managers. In the overall capital-raising category, ABN Amro Hoare Govett rises to ninth equal from 13th.
For first time in years, the three Swiss firms eclipse the US investment banks in Eurobonds. CS First Boston and UBS have improved to equal second behind SBC Warburg.
SBC Warburg is making progress too. As well as topping the overall Eurobond poll, it is the second-best lead manager of US dollar deals, albeit far behind Merrill Lynch. It is the only non-American among the top five in this sector.
Our derivatives poll suggests that the newly-merged Chase Manhattan is doing something right. The bank ranks equal fourth as best overall liability management firm. Last year, Chemical was 14th and Chase 15th. As a provider of risk management advice, Chase ranks second only to JP Morgan; in 1995 the old Chase was equal 10th.
The bank has put behind it the credit problems of the early 1990s which removed Chase and Chemical from some end-users' lists of acceptable counterparties. Chase now ranks second behind established leader JP Morgan in long-term dollar interest-rate swaps, a high-volume sector of the market where credit quality is important. It also ranks second again to JP Morgan in currency swaps involving the dollar.
Methodology
The rankings are based on the views of two groups: banks' clients and market professionals. Euromoney asked chief financial executives at corporates, sovereigns, banks and supranational organizations, active in the international capital markets, to fill out questionnaires asking which banks had provided them with the best service in capital raising and liability management. As a benchmark, Euromoney also polled professionals in the markets.
In total 214 institutions took part in this year's users' and peers' polls. Altogether, 102 institutions responded to the users' poll and these break down as follows: corporates 44%, banks 38%, other financial institutions 8%, sovereigns 6% and supranationals 4%. Twenty-five per cent of respondents to the users' poll were based in the UK, 16% in Germany, 11% in Scandinavia, 21% elsewhere in Europe, 15% in North America, 9% in Asia, 2% in South America and 1% in Africa. Replies to the peers' poll came from 28 swaps executives and traders, 40 Eurobond syndicate heads, 26 syndicated loan chiefs and 18 heads of equity syndication.
Banks' results are aggregated, where appropriate, to include fully owned subsidiaries.
Please note that although we try to improve the quality of the polls each year, no poll can be entirely objective. If you have any questions or suggestions, or would like a more detailed breakdown of the results, please call Rebecca Dobson on 0171 779 8694. |