How to measure the success of a bond deal is set to change following developments last month. No longer will bank syndicate heads talk of deals being three, four or Five times oversubscribed, no longer will the participation of the biggest investors be crucial, or even particularly relevant, to the deal going ahead. Even the roles of lead manager and syndicate could change forever.
That, at least, would appear to be the message from those companies which vied to lead manage the First online non-government debt issue.
Bear Stearns was actually the First to do so, but that was on a deal for itself. The First to lead an issue for a corporate was upstart investment bank WR Hambrecht, set up just over two years ago by Hambrecht and Quist founder Bill Hambrecht to change the model for issuing equities.
On August 15, a year after being hired, Mike Evelyn and Robert Goldberg, the two former senior debt capital markets bankers at Merrill Lynch who are now co-heads of WRH's debt markets division, achieved this breakthrough by leading a $300 million deal for Dow Chemical.