DealZone

Highlights from this week’s Thomson Reuters Investment Banking scorecard:

ASIA PACIFIC IPOs UP 65%
Malaysian telecommunications provider, Maxis Bhd, raised $3.3 billion in an initial public offering this week, the biggest IPO from a Malaysian issuer on record.  Asia Pacific offerings account for 59% of global IPO activity this year and total $49.2 billion for year-to-date 2009, a 65% increase over last year at this time.
In Asia, China International Capital Co, CITIC and UBS account for nearly 35% of overall IPO activity, by proceeds, this year while Morgan Stanley has lead managed the most offerings in the region, with 14.

AUSTRALIAN M&A TOTALS $130.9 BILLION
Australian target M&A activity totals $130.9 billion for year-to-date 2009, a 58% increase over the year ago period.  Deal activity in the materials, financial and industrial sectors accounts for nearly 80% of overall activity.
A bid for Melbourne-based Transurban Group, an operator and developer of electronic tolling systems by an investor group comprised of Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan for $8.9 billion topped the list of biggest deals this week.

HIGH TECH CORPORATE DEBT UP 34%
This week’s $4.9 billion bond offering from Cisco Systems brings year-to-date corporate debt volume in the high tech sector to $56.9 billion, a 34% increase over last year.  Ranking as the largest US high tech bond for year-to-date 2009, it also marks Cisco’s second debt offering this year.
As the global credit markets have rebounded this year, a number of high technology names have stepped into the bond market with multi-billion offerings including Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Microsoft and IBM.

Highlights from the Thomson Reuters Investment Banking Scorecard:

· CHINA, BRAZIL & US ACCOUNT FOR 80% OF IPOs
Banco Santander (Brasil) SA raised $7.0 billion in an initial public offering in New York and Sao Paulo, marking the largest IPO by a Brazilian company on record and the second largest IPO this year behind an offering from China State Construction Engineering, which raised $7.3 billion in July.
Global initial public offerings for year-to-date 2009 total $59.4 billion, a 35% decline from last year at this time.  Despite a flurry of recent offerings, nearly 80% of IPOs this year, by proceeds, have come from companies based in China, Brazil and the United States.

· ACQUISITIONS BY RUSSIAN COMPANIES DOWN 53%
An $11.7 billion bid by Russia’s Vimpelcom for Kyivstar, a Ukrainian provider of wireless telecommunications services partly owned by Norwegian state-owned Telenor ASA ranked as the week’s biggest deal and the largest acquisition by a Russian company this year.
Overall, worldwide M&A totals $1.5 trillion for year-to-date 2009, a 38% decline over last year.  Acquisitions by Russian companies total $28.6 billion so far this year, a decrease of 53% compared to 2008.

· JAPANESE FOLLOW-ONS REACH $35.6 BILLION
In its second common stock offering this year, Nomura Holdings Inc, raised $5.1 billion, marking the third largest Japanese follow-on offering this year behind Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group ($9.4 billion) and Mizuho Financial Group ($5.9 billion).
The volume of follow-on offerings in Japan totals $35.6 billion for year-to-date 2009, nearly eight times greater than the volume seen during year-to-date 2008.  Capital raising by financial issuers dominates the market this year, accounting for 77% of total issuance.

From this week’s Thomson Reuters Investment Banking Scorecard:

· US CORPORATE DEBT TOPS $20 BILLION, BREAKS RECORD

For the second consecutive week, the volume of corporate investment grade debt in the US market topped the $20 billion mark, bolstered by benchmark names in the energy & power and financial sectors.   Shell International Finance raised $5 billion via Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank, while Canada’s Cenovus Energy raised $3.5 billion this week.

Investment grade debt activity from non-financial issuers totals $372.3 billion for year-to-date 2009, already besting the previous all-time record for annual non-financial activity set in 2001 when $360.5 billion in new corporate issues were brought to market.

· EUROPEAN CONVERTIBLE BONDS UP 50%
While global convertible bond activity is down 46% over 2008, the market for convertible bonds in Europe has picked up dramatically, with $24.1 billion in new convertible offerings – a 50% year-over-year increase.  Issuers in the materials, financial and industrial sectors account for nearly 60% of this year’s volume in Europe.  Deals from Anglo American, Arcelor Mittal and Alcatel Lucent top the list of convertible offerings this year.

Here are the highlights from this week’s Thomson Reuters Investment Banking Scorecard:

- US M&A Accounts for the Majority of Weekly Worldwide Activity

US M&A activity was worth $13.9 billion for the week, bolstered by a flurry of deal announcements ahead of Labor Day in oil and gas, media and pharmaceuticals.  Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch each advised on just over $9 billion in deals this week.

- Government Program Lifts Weekly US ABS Volume to $16.4 billion

The weekly volume of US asset-backed securities totaled $16.4 billion, powered by $14.2 billion of offerings eligible for Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF).  Multi-billion dollar securitizations from the likes of Citigroup, Bank of America and Ford brought year-to-date ABS volume to $110.5 billion, a 28% decrease from last year at this time when issuance totaled $154.1 billion.

Highlights from this week’s Thomson Reuters Investment Banking Scorecard:

·Nine Consecutive Weeks of IPO Filings in the US
Since late June, 32 Companies have filed to go public on US stock exchanges, marking nine consecutive weeks of IPO filings and the longest streak in over a year.  Notable names include Hyatt Hotels, Dole Foods, Dollar General and Ancestry.com.

·US Debt Capital Markets Activity Breaks Even
The volume of new debt offerings from US issuers totals $1.5 trillion for year-to-date 2009, exactly even with volume last year at this time.  US High Yield activity is up 139% over 2008 levels, totaling $72.4 billion from 166 offerings.

·Porsche-Volkswagen Tie-up Boosts M&A Rankings
As Porsche and Volkswagen prepare to merge operations, eight investment banks secured advisory roles in the transaction, boosting worldwide M&A rankings.  Most notably, Citi moved up one spot to third, while UBS moved to seventh from ninth.

Highlights and low points — syndicated loans, for example, at their lowest since 1993 — from the July Thomson Reuters Investment Banking Snapshots:

DEBT CAPITAL MARKETS

Asia Pacific & Chinese Issuers Reached New Corporate Bonds High in July – Asia Pacific issuers raised a record US$41bn in July, up 11% from June 2009 (US$43.3bn) and double the level of July 2008 (US$24.1bn). Chinese issuers accounted for 49% of the regions’ activity with a record US$23.4bn raised, up 3% from June 2009 (US$22.7bn) and up 218% from July 2008 (7.4bn). Financials (US$16.2bn, 70%) and Materials (US$4.7bn, 20%) were the main sectors driving the surge in China.

European High Yield Bonds Hit 2 Year High – Global issuance of high yield bonds reached US$12.3bn in July 2009, down 27% from June 2009 (US$16.7bn) but up 270% from July 2008 (US$3.3bn). This marked the third highest level of activity for a month of July on record and the best since 2003 (US$18.6bn). European issuers accounted for 44% of total with US$5.4bn raised, the highest monthly volume since June 2007. European activity consisted of two issues, Wind Acquisition Finance (US$3.7bn), the second largest HY bond of the year globally and the second largest European bond ever issued after NXP Semiconductor (US$5.95bn, 2006) and Fiat Finance & Trade ($US$1.8bn).

Here are some highlights from this week’s Thomson Reuters Investment Banking Scorecard.

Medarex boosts biotechnology M&A to $5.3 billion

Bristol-Myers Squibb’s $1.9 billion acquisition of Medarex lifted the volume of biotechnology M&A to $5.3 billion for year-to-date 2009, a 90% decrease from 2008 levels. Last year’s total was bolstered by the $46.7 billion acquisition of Genentech by Roche Holding. Excluding the Genentech transaction, biotechnology M&A volume is down 22% over 2008 levels. By number of deals, mergers in the sector are up 15% over last year.

With their advisory roles on the Medarex transaction, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs top the ranking of biotechnology advisors for year-to-date 2009.

If it’s Friday it must be Thomson Reuters Investment Banking Scorecard day. There’s a slogan for you. Anyway, here are the highlights:

“Industrial Sector ECM Shows Increase Over Last Year

Bolstered by this week’s follow-on offering from Japanese airline services provider All Nippon Airways for $1.5 billion, total equity capital markets activity across the industrials sector reached  $26.5 billion, a 2% increase from the same period last year when volume was $25.9 billion.

Other large equity offerings this week came from Asian issuers including $5.5 billion from Japan’s Mizuho Financial and $1.5 billion from India’s Sterlite Industries, bringing weekly volume for the region to $9.8 billion, the second biggest week this year.

The Thomson Reuters Investment Banking scorecard lands again. Here are the highlights:

BAAT Offers Largest Auto Loan Securitization of 2009

A US asset-backed offering fell among the top global debt deals of the week, as Bank of America Auto Trust (BAAT) offered a $3.9 billion TALF-eligible auto loan securitization, the largest such ABS offering this year.  In total, auto loan backed issues have accounted for 35.7% of US ABS, the largest share of the approximately $80 billion so far in 2009.

As a whole, securitizations are down 30% in the US and 39% globally over 2008 levels.  This week marks the third largest week for ABS activity in the US during 2009 with $9.7 billion of issuance.

This week’s Thomson Reuters “Investment Banking Scorecard” is out. Here are the highlights:

“BHP/Rio Tinto Deal Changes Global M&A Landscape

“The announcement of a joint venture between Australia’s BHP Billiton and domestic rival Rio Tinto last Friday ranks as the second largest worldwide deal this year and may prove fruitful for some investment banks.  Advisors Gresham Partners, Lazard, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs will advise on the deal, translating to valuable deal activity in a year where M&A volume is down 43%.  Earlier this year, Chinalco announced a multi-continent $19 billion investment in Rio Tinto, which was withdrawn as a result of the new mega-deal.  Of the seven banks on the initial Chinalco deal, only Morgan Stanley, ranked first for worldwide M&A year-to-date, secured a role on the BHP deal.

“Real Estate Equity Capital Markets Activity up 85%

“Equity capital markets offerings from real estate issuers have soared so far in 2009, while activity in the M&A, DCM, and loans segments remains down from 2008.  Real estate ECM volume is up 85% over last year at $36.5 billion.  Activity in the Americas accounts for 44.7% of the total volume across the sector, followed by Asia (including Japan) with 36.6% and Europe with 18.4% share of the market.