Now is a good time to be working as an investment banker in the equity capital markets division. ECM revenue now stands at $825m for the year to date, more than double the $382m generated at this point last year, and banks are allocating larger performance-related bonuses to their ECM teams in the wake of bigger revenues and are building their teams.
While the number and size of ECM transactions has been growing this year, there’s another factor to consider why so many banks are having a good 2014 – more firms are getting in on the deals. As the chart below supplied by Thomson Reuters demonstrates, the number of IPOs with more than five bookmakers working on bringing it to market has risen drastically from four in 2012, to 18 for year to date in 2014. This, rather obviously, means more pitches for the banks’ ECM teams, more deals and more work.
It doesn’t, however, appear to have had much impact on the league tables. JPMorgan still tops the European IPO rankings, with a 10.3% market share and bulge bracket firms remain firmly placed in the top ten, unlike the M&A market where boutiques are getting more of a look in.
