DealZone

Banks fell over one another in May trying to raise money to obey Uncle Sam’s capital requirements and plug holes in their finances, leading to the largest month for share issuance ever in the United States, according to Thomson Reuters.

Fueled by enormous shares offerings such as Wells Fargo‘s $8.6 billion follow-on the day after the government released its stressed tests, total equity capital issuance in the United States came to $48.8 billion in May. Year to date, the volume of secondary share issues is 40 percent ahead of where it was at this time last year.

For all the talk of a renascent IPO market , May’s three deals (DigitalGlobe, SolarWinds and OpenTable) only totaled a modest combined $490 million, leaving IPO volume in dollar terms down 94 percent from last year.

Here are the largest follow-ons in May in the United States:

Issue Date Proceeds ($bln) Issuer

05/08/09 $8.6 Wells Fargo
05/08/09 $4.7 Morgan Stanley
05/11/09 $2.8 US Bancorp
05/18/09 $2.3 State Street Corp
05/06/09 $2.3 Dow Chemical Co

(PHOTO: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid– New York Stock Exchange, May 26, 2009)