Goldman Edges Out Wachovia With A Lift From Ford Deal

A late push from its role in the Ford credit helped Goldman Sachs edge out Wachovia Securities for fifth place in Dealogic's leveraged loan bookrunner league table, capping a year that saw the firm jump into the top five from eighth place last year. Goldman pulled ahead of Wachovia just last week when it was apportioned $6.2 billion of the $7 billion Ford term loan. That whopping dollop of league table credit was enough for it to squeak past Wachovia, beating the bank by $400 million in deal value. Goldman ended the year with $38 billion in credited deals, landing a 5.3% share of the market.

Goldman's move was the one big change in a ranking that otherwise followed a familiar pattern. JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup maintained their positions as the top three loan bookrunners during a record year for the syndicated lending market. JPMorgan grabbed 21.4% of the market share of U.S. syndicated non-investment grade loans, according to data collected from Jan. 1 to Dec. 19, 2006. JPM was the lead bookrunner for more than $156 billion worth of loans, followed closely by Bank of America, which led $123 billion of loans for 16.8% of market share. Citigroup finished in third place with about 10.3% of market share with $75 billion of loans.

Credit Suisse jumped a few spots to fourth from sixth in 2005. CS made up 6% of the market share this past year, with $44 billion in deals, up from $32 billion last year. Deutsche Bank finished in seventh place, the biggest drop, down from fourth place last year, with 4.6% of the market share. Merrill Lynch jumped two spots from 10th to eighth this year, with 3.8% of the market share and $27 billion in deal value. Lehman Brothers and UBS settled into the ninth and 10th spots, respectively, both with 2.5% of the market share and about $18 billion in deal value. Lehman amassed a mere $100 million more than UBS to inch its way past the Swiss bank, but was still far below its $26 billion total deal value and seventh place finish last year. UBS had about $11 billion in deal value and came in 12th place in 2005.

In terms of numbers of deals, B of A came in first, completing 554 deals in 2006. JPM followed in second with 437 and Wachovia took third with 211.

The top three could be found in many of the year's billion-plus credits, including HCA's $8.8 billion term loan and Lyondell Chemicals $2.575 billion deal. JPMorgan also boosted its numbers by leading deals like HealthSouth's $3.85 billion refinancing, Aramark's $4.6 billion buyout financing and a $2.375 billion credit for Avis. B of A took charge of credits like Insight Midwest's $2.5 billion credit and took the sole-lead on Western Refining's $2 billion deal. Citi also hit it big with a $4.1 billion term loan for VNU and about $1.5 billion in a dividend recapitalization for Burger King.

Overall lending for 2006 reached $1.67 trillion as of Dec. 13, surpassing last year's total of $1.55 trillion.