J.P. Morgan leads from start to finish in 2021 as top telecom debt adviser

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC closed out 2021 on top of the debt adviser rankings for the U.S. and Canadian telecommunications sector, buoyed by its work on a series of large bond sales by major carriers earlier in the year.

The investment bank, which received $6.11 billion in aggregate deal credit from 33 debt offerings in 2021, has been leading the telecom debt adviser list since the first quarter of 2021 but ranked fourth in the 2020 full-year rankings.

Second-ranked Barclays Capital Inc. obtained $5.39 billion in aggregate deal credit from 28 debt offerings, edging out Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., which received $5.36 billion in aggregate deal credit from 32 offerings.

Most of the top three firms' debt advisory work in the telecom sector occurred in the first nine months of 2021, with all three assisting Verizon Communications Inc. on its $25 billion senior notes offering spread across nine tranches in the first quarter. The firms in the same quarter also worked on a triple-tranche bond offering worth $3.8 billion by T-Mobile US Inc. unit T-Mobile USA Inc. Additionally, J.P. Morgan and Barclays advised AT&T Inc. on its three-part, $6 billion offering of senior notes in the first quarter of 2021.

Barclays also worked on T-Mobile USA's three-part, $3 billion offering of senior notes in the fourth quarter.

S&P Global Market Intelligence counted 88 telecom debt offerings worth $64.88 billion in aggregate in 2021, down from 96 offerings worth $152.56 billion in aggregate in 2020. There were two preferred security offerings in 2021, unchanged from 2020, while the number of common equity offerings fell to one from four.

In the common equity category, TELUS Corp.'s stock offering in the first quarter led to a five-way tie for the top adviser ranking. BMO Capital Markets Corp., CIBC World Markets Corp., RBC Capital Markets LLC, Scotia Capital (USA) Inc. and TD Securities (USA) LLC each received $206.8 million in related deal credit from the offering.

For preferred securities, the top spot for financial advisers was shared by BofA Securities Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, UBS Investment Bank and Wells Fargo Securities LLC. The six firms each received $185.0 million in aggregate deal credit from two issuances by Telephone and Data Systems Inc. earlier in 2021.