The door to the debt markets swung open in January. Investment-grade companies, still largely shut out of the equity markets, issued $549 billion in debt from January 1 to February 26, according to research firm Dealogic. That’s up 132 percent from the comparable period in 2008, when $237 billion was issued. The rise was partly the result of the government’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, which guarantees debts of systemically important institutions. Seventeen companies took advantage of the guarantee to issue about $50.2 billion of debt, including Citigroup, which tapped the market for $12 billion, General Electric Co., which raised $10 billion, and Bank of America Corp., which borrowed $8.35 billion. JPMorgan Chase & Co., which has navigated the credit crisis relatively well, moves to the top of the underwriting league table, having won an assignment as lead manager on six of the top 15 deals.
