In the areas of service to clients and relationships with investors, the bank’s work was similarly impressive. The bank in 2018 was a leader in UK RMBS, capital relief transactions, multi-currency issues and was number one in EMEA CMBS and CLO underwriting. In total, BAML’s securitization team placed 34 deals across nine asset types in six countries, and it was the only bank to have lead deals in every category of securitization — ABS, CMBS, RMBS and CLOs.
Particularly impressive, the bank placed transactions in every month of 2018, January to December, at times when the market proved highly challenging. Towards the end of the year, when volatility rocked broader financial markets and Brexit anxieties were high, BAML placed three deals including a student loan transaction, a dual currency dollar and sterling credit card offering and a German CMBS transaction.
Over the course of the year, BAML’s CLO team was similarly engaged at a very high level with market participants across Europe. It placed the first European CLO for Permira Debt Managers, which was also the first CLO in Europe to include environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. For more established managers with a track record in Europe, BAML was also a leader in arranging new deals, leading transactions for BlackRock, Investcorp, GSO and Oaktree among others.
In CMBS, BAML’s securitization team led on four of the 11 deals to be priced in 2018, making it a leader in the revival of the European CMBS market, which has sat largely dormant in the years since the financial crisis. The bank issued three deals from its long running Taurus shelf and one transaction from a new BAMS shelf, which it issued jointly with Morgan Stanley.
The bank in 2018 placed deals with close to 75 unique UK investors, 45 US, and engaged with buyers in Switzerland, Finland, Spain, Latvia, Japan and Israel. BAML’s securitization team demonstrated that the bank is a foundational presence in the market and its work supported the revival and further development of European structured finance over the course of 2018.
