Equity Capital Markets
The equity capital markets raised $586 million from 16 issues this week and saw the pricing of two IPOs greater than $100 million in size -- the first time this has happened since the week commencing July 21, 2008, when Bayan Resources' raised $528 million ahead of a new listing and Perwaja Holdings' completed its $113 million IPO. UBS, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley continue to lead the league table ranking on $2.7 billion, $2.2 billion and $2.1 billion respectively.
The IPOs of note this week were Silver Base Group Holdings' $134 million offering via BOC International and UBS; and Changyou.com's $120 million deal led by Credit Suisse and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch.
The first quarter of the year saw a total of $13.7 billion worth of equity deals -- a drop of 43% from the first quarter 2008 and the lowest first quarter volume since 2003, when a mere $3.3 billion was raised. The deal flow of 144 issues was down 28% from the same period last year.
Only 23 IPOs were priced in the first quarter of 2009. The combined $272 million raised from these deals represents a 97% decrease from $9.2 billion in the first quarter 2008 and is the lowest quarterly volume since the first quarter of 1999 when just $209 million was raised from new listings. The only IPO that raised more than $100 million was the $133 million offering by China's Real Gold Mining.
Follow-on activity in Asia (ex Japan) saw a 28% increase to $13.0 billion in the first quarter from $10.1 billion in the same period last year. The increase was partly fuelled by international firms selling stakes in Chinese banks.
Deals scheduled to price next week include a $310 million rights offering for Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing via Citi, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley; and a $105 million follow-on for South Korea's Chinhung International led by Daewoo Securities, Tong Yang Securities and Woori Investment & Securities.
Debt Capital Markets
The debt capital markets saw a single trade this week in the form of Hana Bank's $1 billion three-year bond deal via bookrunners Barclays Capital, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and ING. The deal enabled Barclays Capital and HSBC to secure the top two spots in the league table ranking on $1.7 billion and $1.6 billion respectively, pushing UBS down to third place with $1.5 billion.
A total of $9.4 billion was raised from the G3 international market in the first quarter of the year -- a 93% increase from the $4.9 billion raised in the first quarter 2008, and the highest quarterly level since the second quarter of 2007 which saw $17.7 billion worth of new issuance. However, the deal flow of eight trades was less than half the 19 deals priced in the same period last year.
Corporate investment grade bonds accounted for 50% of the volume in the first quarter 2009 -- up from a 38% share in the first quarter 2008.
