We’ve heard an awful lot about booming deal making in Europe this year – and the investment banks are responding by upping hiring and launching well-flagged shake-ups of their London and European operations. But things are going pretty well on the other side of the water too.
November was not just the best month for the US in some time in the IPO market. Fund raising across all US markets surged, according to figures from Thomson Financial.
Extraordinary global liquidity and a seemingly rapacious appetite for risk from investors made November the biggest month ever for US high yield issuance, bolstered by two of the largest deals of all time – a $5.95bn offering from Freescale Semiconductor and a $5.7bn issue from hospital group HCA.
The $26.5bn raised in the high yield market was nearly double that in October and far exceeded any other month this year.
Investment grade was also strong. The $74.9bn raised made November the strongest month since March 2002 when $81.8bn of paper came to market.
Less surprising perhaps was that M&A deal making hit a new peak. Merger monday, and huge deals such as Blackstone’s $36bn takeover of Equity Office and the $18.7bn buyout of Clear Channel, made November the best month for US M&A since January 2000.
Back then it was the merger between AOL and Time Warner that boosted the numbers – the markets were approaching their peak and a few weeks later the party was over.