Deals
Investment Banking Fees Slump to Lehman Lows Amid Euro Crisis
This article is for subscribers only.
Investment banks’ fees are on course to match the levels of 2008, when Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed, after Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis roiled global markets and companies shelved deal plans.
The global investment banking fee pool, which comprises payments to banks for mergers and acquisitions advice, loans and underwriting debt and equity sales, may post the worst quarter since 2004 and stood at $78.6 billion year-to-date as of Dec. 19, according to New York-based research firm Freeman & Co. That’s 9 percent less than the $86.4 billion earned in 2011 and little more than the $78.5 billion earned in 2008.