As a result of the “stress tests,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told 10 major US financial institutions that he wanted them to raise $75 billion in the next six months. They raced to the markets, which The Wall Street Journal said would lead to “Treasury’s I-Banker Stress Test: 6 Months of Overtime.”
Forget the bankers. On deals like these, it’s the lawyers working overtime, so we set out to find out who got the work.
After the jump, analysis of the 10 banks’ issuances and the counsel on both sides.
We focused exclusively on common-stock offerings. A number of these banks are also issuing “TARP Preferred” stock as well as raising capital by offering debt and selling assets.
| Bank | Amount | Issuer’s Counsel | UW Counsel |
|---|---|---|---|
| B of A | $11 bn | McGuireWoods | MoFo |
| Wells Fargo | $8.5 bn | Wachtell | Cravath |
| GMAC | $7.5 bn | Wachtell | Sonnenschein |
| Citi | $3 bn | Cleary | N/A |
| Regions Fin. | $1.8 bn | Sullivan & Cromwell | Simpson Thacher |
| SunTrust | $1.25 bn | King & Spalding | Sullivan & Cromwell |
| KeyCorp | $750 mill | Squire Sanders | Sullivan & Cromwell |
| Morgan Stanley | $4 bn | Davis Polk | Sidley |
| Fifth Third | $750 mill | Graydon Head | Sullivan & Cromwell |
| PNC | $650 mill | Cravath | Wachtell |
S&C continues to rack up the TARP work, even when they’re not on the government side. The firm represents one issuer and three consortia of underwriters – and Morgan Stanley participated in all three.
Our friends at Wachtell are, not surprisingly, on the issuer side for two deals. Together with Cravath, they won Dealmaker of the Week for the Wells Fargo offering. The GMAC engagement was also a no-brainer; the company turned to Ed Herlihy to steer it through the TARP-application process. But why didn’t they get the Bank of America work? They’re doing everything else for the bank. Still, they got the two deals that mattered, getting $16 billion in league-table credit.
Cravath was the only other firm with multiple engagements, and was on both sides: issuer for PNC and underwriters for Wells Fargo.
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