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Salomon Smith Barney Deutsche Bank Goldman Sachs
In the words of one of the great cartoon characters of all time - Foghorn Leghorn of Warner Brothers fame- "Ya can argue with me, boy, but ya can't argue with figures!" Indeed. We applied the same logic to our selection of Bank of the Year in bonds, and duly came up with our choice of Salomon Smith Barney (SSB).
In this case, the figures were pretty impressive. SSB raised Eu92.4 billion in debt capital for corporates in 2000 - some Eu6 billion more than its nearest league table competitor Deutsche Bank. SSB also grabbed a 21% market share in the process.
What has enhanced SSB's position in the bond universe this year, and thus contributed to their selection, is the improved performance in both euro and yen-denominated markets. This was especially true in Asia, where SSB is beginning to see the fruits of its merger with Nikko Securities, now in its second year. Yen issuance for Nikko SSB rose nearly Eu7.5 billion over the year, allowing the firm to pick up a further 5% in overall market share for the region.
A similar improvement was found in European markets, as Schroder SSB gained five places in some regional league tables, and improved its issue capacity by some Eu5 billion.
It was this lack of international dominance that kept SSB from leap-frogging Merrill as our bond house of the year in 1999.
These statistics went a long way in demonstrating that Salamon is no longer an investment house dominated by US dollar issuance. Not to say there was not a great deal of US dollar product travelling...