How to get ahead in the euro race

This has been the year of the euro-denominated bond. Investors are happy to buy them for the yield pick-up; issuers are keen to establish their profile as borrowers in the new single currency. Meanwhile, bond arrangers are jockeying for position as the participants in monetary union are confirmed and the world's second largest capital market takes firm shape. But as Rebecca Bream reports, the banks are divided about the best way to prove that they have the expertise to arrange bonds in euros.

Every euro has its swap price

Arrangers of euro issues 1998
Manager or group Amount (€ m) Issues
1 Paribas 15,206 16
2 SBC Warburg Dillon Read 10,215 13
3 JP Morgan 5,750 4
4 Merrill Lynch 3,600 5
5 Credit Suisse First Boston 3,065 4
6 Goldman Sachs 2,000 1
7 Deutsche Morgan Grenfell 1,523 4
8 Société Générale 1,300 4
9 Salomon Smith Barney 1,300 3
10 Barclays Capital 1,200 2
11= Banco Santander 1,000 1
11= Dresdner Kleinwort Benson 1,000 1
13 Banque Nationale de Paris 940 3
14 Lehman Brothers 754 3
15 ABN Amro 750 1
Source: Capital Data Bondware

“The euro is our chance to do to the US banks what they have done to us with the dollar. But we only have one chance and the window of opportunity is small and getting smaller.”

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