Equity Capital Markets
In the largest week since the lunar new year holiday, a total of $2.78 billion was raised from 26 offerings. Yet despite this intense activity, there was very little movement in the ECM league table.
Morgan Stanley did, however, close the gap on leader Merrill to less than $150 million. The US investment bank moved through the $1.8 billion mark after running the books on a $533 million offering for Shinhan Financial. Morgan Stanley has now raised more than 50% of its entire credit for last year.
The largest offering of the week was also the largest follow on from South East Asia so far this year. Government-owned Khazanah Nasional sold a $765 million stake in Telekom Malaysia via joint books CIMB, CSFB, AmMerchant Bank and ECM Libra Investment Bank.
CSFB was also a lead, alongside Merrill and Phatra Securities, on the $385 million equivalent IPO for Airports of Thailand. Despite these two deals CSFB still sits outside the top 10 at number 12, with $394 million from four transactions.
Other movement saw ABN come in to the top 10 in seventh place after completing a $170 million follow on for Chunghwa Picture Tubes. Deutsche Bank also gained ground, moving up to ninth from 14th after acting as sole lead on a $170 million convertible for Reliance Energy.
HSBC slipped back to eighth after not being involved this week, but should move up the table next week with a $350 million IPO for GAIL in India, due to price early next week. CSFB will also be looking to build on the two deals from this week with the $1.8 billion IPO for SMIC of China scheduled to price on March 11.
Debt Capital Markets
The first week in March produced the largest weekly volume of the year with $1.8 billion worth of deals priced. This bumper week comes on the back of $1.6 billion issued in the final week of February, previously the highest of 2004.
Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan brought the Republic of Indonesia to the market late in the week with a $1bn trade, moving them both up to $985 million credit apiece. These two remain in third and fourth though as the top two, Citigroup and UBS, were joint books along with Bank of America on a $600 million offering for Hana Bank.
The third deal of the week was for National Thermal Power Corp, which raised $200 million through ABN AMRO and Merrill Lynch. The Dutch bank remained in fifth position with $548 million from three deals, whereas Merrill just squeezed into the top 10, lying ninth with $232 million from two trades.
This is in complete contrast to last year where the US house was leading the way by the first week of March, having racked up $1.7 billion from two deals. HSBC is another player struggling to make an impact after a blockbuster 2003. It is currently sitting in 12th place with just $198 million under its belt after printing only one deal for MTR Corp.
Data provided by Dealogic
