RBC leads pack in advising on Canadian debt issuance in 2015

By John Tilak and Euan Rocha
TORONTO, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Canada RY.TO led
the pack of banks advising on debt issuances for corporations
and governments as activity in that space stayed strong despite
market choppiness, according to data from Thomson Reuters
released on Thursday.
A string of deals by Canada Housing Trust, which issues
bonds from federal housing agency Canadian Mortgage & Housing
Corp, and the Province of Ontario boosted the deal value.
The year saw about C$158.5 billion ($111.9 billion) in debt
issues, excluding self-led issuance by banks. That was down
about 4 percent from the C$165.33 billion in issuance in 2014.
"Global volatility kept many Canadian corporate borrowers on
the sidelines in 2015," said Susan Rimmer, head of debt capital
markets at CIBC Capital Markets.
RBC was closely followed by National Bank of Canada NA.TO ,
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CM.TO , Toronto Dominion
Bank TD.TO , Bank of Montreal BMO.TO and Bank of Nova Scotia
BNS.TO .
Including self-led issuance, Canadian debt issuance in 2015
totaled C$172.8 billion, just shy of the C$174.8 billion issued
back in 2014.
"Our expectations for 2016 is that volumes on the corporate
side would be very similar to last year," said Rob Brown,
co-head of debt capital markets at RBC.
"The big swing factor this year would be M&A activity," he
said. "We see more of that type of activity in a low growth
environment. That could help in terms of issuance volumes."
The other factor investors will be closely watching for in
2016 will be risk appetite in a climate of higher volatility.
"Investors now want risk to be appropriately priced, as
opposed to just chasing yield, which was a bit of a theme we saw
in the past," said Richard Sibthorpe, managing director and head
of Canadian debt capital markets at BMO.
Uncertainty about China's economic growth also has weighed
on global markets in recent months and a sharp selloff in
Chinese equities at the start of this year has only renewed
those concerns.
($1 = 1.4159 Canadian dollars)