“Mid-ish” Tier Banks - Rate Them

Not a lot on this forum about European/Asian banks that aren’t as prevalent in the US, thinking SocGen, BNP, Credit Agricole, Mizuho, MUFG, Macquarie, SMBC… from my experience they are mostly debt shops due to balance sheet, but seem to be on a lot of recent TLB + HY deals.

Wondering if anyone has some insight into how these stack up against each other in terms of comp / quality of deals / presence on the street. Thanks ladies and gents.

19 Comments
 

In a nutshell, these banks are prominent in EUR so they have large balance sheets (cash/assets to put to work) so they’re able to underwrite debt facilities. There are only a handful of banks like this, so bank groups on TLBs / revolvers usually have the same names scattered in there. This being said, they’re not major players in the US so companies/sponsors will go to a JPM or BofA to lead these deals (left lead) as they are the best on the street by a pretty wide margin. All this coming from a LevFin guy at one of the listed banks.

 

Rate them through what lens?

Balance sheet financing - They are all decent. With the likes of Soc Gen and BNP being better in Europe but obviously far weaker in US and Asia. 

For M&A - these are pretty poor shops, with the exception of Macquarie which is ok as a niche infra shop.

Sponsors M&A (London)
 

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