When turbulent times hit the capital markets, as they have done with some frequency this year, the temptation for all participants, whether they are bank bookrunners, investors, or the issuers themselves, must be to put on a tin hat, dig in, and hope to ride out the danger without taking too much of a beating.
Credit, then, to JPMorgan’s European equity capital markets (ECM) team, co-headed by Klaus Hessberger and Achintya Mangla in London, for plugging away and getting several major clients' deals done during that period. “Until the Greek crisis, it had actually been a fairly sedate year for ECM in Europe. From volume perspective it was probably equal to the year before. There was a good level of activity in initial public offerings [IPOs], merger and acquisition [M&A] financings, capital raising and placements. The market was derailed slightly by the Greece news in the summer, but those were the busiest weeks from our perspective as we led 10 ECM transactions during that time," says Mr Hessberger.
