Too many banks spoil the bond issue

摘要

When Italian utility Enel sold a €2.25bn dual-tranche hybrid earlier this month, the most striking aspect of the deal was the number of bookrunners: 16. Even in the commoditised business of debt capital markets, that is a large number of banks to be transacting a deal. "If you had three sensible banks on a deal you could probably cover all the main investors in Europe," said a DCM banker.