Banks in Dead Heat for ECM, DCM Lead

In capital markets, the race for leadership in has been far tighter than in the M&A and investment banking fees rankings, according to Dealogic data. On the debt side, BofA-Merrill edges out JPMorgan, with $1.65bn across 6 deals, according to data through March 5. JPMorgan’s $1.57bn via 6 deals tops Banco do Brasil’s $1.4bn across 5 transactions. In the year-ago period, the DCM rankings were led by HSBC, JPMorgan and Citi, with 7, 2 and 3 deals, respectively. On the ECM side, Brazilan shop BTG Pactual narrowly beats Credit Suisse and Bradesco, respectively, for the top spot. The startup, which had a strong 2009 as well, has underwritten $361m via 3 deals, versus $322m for CS, also through 3 deals. The two will have to contend with strong competition from the likes of Santander and BofA-Merrill, the latter of which has 4 deals scheduled to price in the coming months. The rankings are also likely to be dictated by institutions’ ability to score lead roles on upcoming issuances by Petrobras, Eletrobras, OSX and potentially EBX, which could add up to dozens of billions of dollars in issuance this year.