Deutsche Bank No. 1 telecom debt adviser in 2020; Goldman, Barclays follow

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. ranked as the top debt adviser by deal credit for the telecommunications sector in 2020, with about $16.17 billion in aggregate credit from 33 offerings, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

That marked a slight improvement from Deutsche Bank's 2019 rank, when it placed second by deal credit.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Barclays Capital Inc. placed second and third, respectively, in the 2020 ranking. Goldman Sachs earned $13.18 billion in deal credit from 33 sector debt offerings announced during the most recent year, while Barclays Capital received $11 billion in deal credit from 37 offerings. Both firms improved their positions from 2019. Goldman did not make the top 10 telecom debt advisers that year, placing 12th, while Barclays ranked sixth in 2019.

The top three telecom debt advisers for 2020 all worked on a series of notes offerings from Frontier Communications Corp. that raised an aggregate $3.70 billion during the fourth quarter, bolstering their advisory leads from earlier in the year. The trio also advised on a $1 billion debt offering by Lumen Technologies, formerly known as CenturyLink Inc.

Deutsche Bank Securities and Goldman also worked on a $4.75 billion debt offering by T-Mobile US Inc. unit T-Mobile USA Inc. during the fourth quarter of 2020.

Debt remained the most popular form of capital raise by far among U.S. and Canadian telecommunications companies during 2020, with 109 offerings worth $153.47 billion in aggregate. That compared to 98 total debt offerings worth $43.11 billion in aggregate in 2019.

By contrast, the sector issued just four common equity offerings and two preferred security offerings in 2020, though that was up from no common equity offerings and one preferred security offering in 2019.

For common stock offerings, Barclays Capital, BofA Securities Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Mizuho Securities USA LLC and Morgan Stanley each earned $1.98 billion in deal credit from T-Mobile public securities transactions made in connection with SoftBank Group Corp.'s monetization of a portion of its shareholding in the U.S. telecommunications company.

For preferred securities, the ranking was driven by two offerings issued by AT&T Inc. in February 2020. Barclays Capital, BBVA Securities Inc., Commerz Markets LLC, Credit Suisse (USA) Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities, Santander Securities LLC and SG Americas Securities LLC each earned $311.3 million in deal credit from one of the offerings; while BofA Securities, J.P. Morgan Securities, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets LLC, UBS Investment Bank and Wells Fargo Securities LLC each earned $291.7 million in deal credit from the other.