Banks battle for arranger mandates

The number of banks competing for LBO arranger mandates has increased significantly over the past six years. In the mid-1990s – when most of the deals took place in the UK – the only firms actively bidding for business were British commercial banks and the big US and Canadian investment banks. Today almost every major continental European bank now has a leveraged loan team. BNP Paribas and HypoVereinsbank are both expanding their coverage as are – to a lesser extent – Crédit Agricole and HSBC.