UBS
UBS has achieved what once seemed impossible for any European investment bank: it has broken into the front rank in the US market, source of roughly half the global investment banking fee pool. In the 12 months ending in April 2004 it doubled its share in announced US M&A deals, working on high-profile transactions such as the $16.4 billion sale of WellPoint Health Networks to Anthem Inc and the $5.8 billion merger of Regions Financial and Union Planters Corp.
Over the same period, UBS has been a lead equity underwriter on deals such as International Steel’s $531 million IPO, Newmont Mining’s $1.1 billion follow-on and a £721 million concurrent offering for Interpublic Group in the US. These transactions ranked among the largest of these types of equity deals in the past 12 months in the US market.
The firm’s stature in US debt capital markets was demonstrated when on a single day (March 18 2004), UBS was joint bookrunner on a $6.7 billion first mortgage bond deal for Pacific Gas & Electric, the largest capital markets transaction to date in the US utility industry and sole bookrunner on a $800 million bond for Ispat Inland, the largest bond to date in the North American steel industry.
