| 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. |