| GMI Home > Merrill Lynch Leads Major Bond Offerings Amid Record Volatility |
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June, 2008 |
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As the global market for investment-grade corporate bonds surges, Merrill Lynch is increasingly leading much of the issuance, with May being a particularly powerful month.
In just the past few weeks, the firm served as a bookrunner or lead manager on major debt capital offerings for clients ranging from Network Rail, the operator of the British rail infrastructure network, and Dutch bank Nederlandse Waterschapsbank, to Comcast Corporation, Starwood Hotels and PepsiCo in the United States, to the Canadian province of Quebec.
As market conditions have improved and the risk appetite of investors has increased, corporate investment-grade issuance, excluding financials, has soared globally to its highest year-to-date total. The figure reached $304.5 billion by May 7, according to financial data provider Dealogic. That represents an increase of 36 percent over the same period last year.
Merrill Lynch has worked on many of these transactions.
Among the major deals in the U.S. were a $2 billion offering for cable and entertainment giant Comcast — the order book for the deal had $14 billion of indications of interest 40 minutes after the announcement — and $1 billion in bonds for Amgen, the world’s largest biotechnology company.
Merrill Lynch also led a $600 million senior debt offering for Starwood Hotels and a $1.75 billion debt deal for snack and beverage leader PepsiCo. The transaction marked the third time Pepsi has been in the market with a bond offering in the past 12 months, and Merrill Lynch has led all three deals. The firm also led a $1 billion bond for the province of Quebec.
In Europe, Merrill Lynch in February was joint bookrunner on Greek telecom company OTE's dual tranche €1.6 billion, three-year bonds and €600 million, seven-year bonds, issued by the company to refinance its acquisition of part of Cosmote, the mobile phone subsidiary of the OTE group. The deal, which reopened the European corporate bond market for triple-B rated issues, was the largest corporate deal of the year at the time and the largest bond ever issued by a Greek company.
In March, the firm was joint lead manager and bookrunner on a €850 million, five-year bond for London-based drinks company Diageo, the company's largest ever Eurobond, which was subsequently increased to €1,150 million. Also in March, the firm executed AT&T's €1.25 billion, seven-year global notes, the U.S. telecommunications company's first deal in the euro market since its inaugural euro issue 12 months earlier. The bond had an order book of more than €3 billion.
More recently, Merrill Lynch executed a $1.25 billion Eurodollar bond for Network Rail, a $1.3 billion offering for Deutsche Bank and a $1 billion debt capital deal for Nederlandse Waterschapsbank. |
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