Structured products volume down 42% on the week, 35% on the month; UBS tops list of agents

By Sheri Kasprzak

New York, May 15 - Structured products volume for the week of May 5 dropped by 42.48%, according to Prospect News data.

Volume totaled $356 million in 104 deals, compared with $619 million in 142 deals for the week of April 28. Excluding exchange-traded notes, volume for the week of May 5 totaled $227 million in 89 deals, down 55.26% from the week of April 28 when volume totaled $508 million in 120 deals.

Smaller deals were popular, with only two offerings at $10 million or larger, compared with 14 the previous week. There were no offerings larger than $20 million, compared with three deals larger than $20 million the previous week.

Equities top asset class

Equities were the most common underlier seen during the week of May 5 with $180 million in 77 deals, comprising 79.13% of all asset classes excluding ETNs. Notes linked to equities dropped by 49.41% compared to the week of April 28, when there were 94 equity-linked deals totaling $356 million.

Synthetic indexes were the second most-common asset class. There were $98 million of securities linked to synthetic indexes during the week of May 5, making up 43.16% of all deals excluding ETNs. This is down 37.41% from the week of April 28 when there were 31 deals of this kind totaling $157 million.

Reverse convertibles top structure

Looking to structure breakdown and excluding ETNs, reverse convertibles took the top spot. There were 50 reverse convertibles during the week of May 5 totaling $86 million, compared with 60 reverse convertibles totaling $184 million during the week of April 28, down 53.43% week-over-week.

Callable reverse convertibles made up 22.31% of all structures excluding ETNs. There were 32 deals totaling $51 million during the week of May 5. This compares with 35 deals totaling $145 million during the week of April 28, a 65.09% drop for the week.

UBS top agent

UBS took the top spot for agents excluding agents for ETNs. The investment bank brought 32 deals totaling $59 million, or 25.88% of the week's offerings, a drop of 15.29% for the week.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC took the No. 2 spot, selling $45 million in 10 deals for the week of May 5, or 19.82% of the total. During the week of April 28, the investment bank sold $122 million in 14 deals, marking a 63.38% drop.

During the week of May 5, Goldman Sachs & Co. was the No. 3 agents, bringing $33 million in nine deals, comprising 14.69% of all deals excluding ETNs.

Month-to-date volume down 35%

Structured products volume has taken a hit, year-over-year. Volume from Jan. 1 to May 11 totaled $17.19 billion in 3,180 deals compared with $29.58 billion in 3,341 deals for the same period of 2012.

Excluding ETNs, volume is down just 5.3%. From Jan. 1 to May 11, volume totaled $13.08 billion in 2,826 deals, compared with $13.75 billion in 3,142 deals for the period of May 1, 2012, to May 11, 2012.

Month-to-date, volume is down 34.96% with $690 million in 177 deals completed for the period between May 1 and May 11. For the same period of April, volume totaled $1.06 billion in 193 deals.

From May 1, 2012, to May 11, 2012, volume totaled $779 million in 269 deals, a 11.47% drop for the month of May 2013 so far.

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