JPMorgan reigns over debt, equities underwriting

By Elinor Comlay

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reigned supreme across global debt and equity underwriting for the last quarter.

The commercial bank underwrote over $147 billion dollars globally, but fell behind Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in terms of fees, according to ThomsonReuters data.

In a rare glimmer of positive news for beleaguered Citi -- in second place for debt and equity underwriting -- it was on top of Wall Street when it came to fees this quarter, pushing JPMorgan into third place behind Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Citi also came out on top of U.S. common stock underwriting, although Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) topped U.S. initial public offerings and Lehman snagged the top spot for follow-on offerings over the first six months of the year.

On the debt side, JPMorgan was also in first position across U.S. debt classes, including securitizations, high yield and investment grade corporate debt and agencies.

Energy, power and utilities companies were the financial stalwarts of a lackluster quarter for capital markets and bankers expect this trend to continue.

While some companies, notably banks, came to the capital markets through necessity, the opportunistic capital raising from the energy and power sector was the story of the second quarter.

"Those two themes don't appear to us to be anywhere near abating," said Doug Baird, co-head of equity capital markets at Bank of America, which rose to fourth place in ThomsonReuters' U.S. initial public offering issuance table for the first half of the year, compared with eighth place for the first half of last year.