Best site for new bond issues
Merrill Lynch
When Freddie Mac makes a suggestion to an investment bank on how to improve issuer services, it can safely assume that it will get the improvements it wants. As one of the world's biggest issuers, its comments are taken seriously.
Almost every large investment bank has a bookbuilding site for new issues, bringing unprecedented transparency to the new issue process. But some sites are better than others. Says Louise Herrle, director of corporate funding at Freddie Mac: “Merrill Lynch has done an excellent job of enhancing its new issues page. Some firms quickly got a site together for competition reasons. But Merrill has shown a real commitment to developing its site.”
Bookbuilding functions are among the strongest offerings of the big firms' sites, and they make perfect use of internet technology. Investors read the details of the new issue, send indications of interest to the investment bank and receive e-mail notification of their allocation. Issuers see the names or types of the institutions that are planning to invest, and they can use this information to judge the deal's success and identify areas that are strong or weak. It is a simple process.
Merrill