JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp (BAC): Who’s Getting Rich on the Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) Debt Deal

There’s big money being made from the massive Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) buyout of Vodafone Group Plc (ADR) (NASDAQ:VOD)‘s stake in Verizon Wireless. And I’m not talking about shareholders at Vodafone. I’m talking about the investment bankers.

Obviously, there were big bucks to be made from the merger deal fees for the gigantic $130 billion takeover. But it didn’t stop there. Today, The Wall Street Journal reported that Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) completed the sale of $49 billion in debt. Those new bonds don’t just structure and sell themselves.

Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE:BCS), Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC)‘s Merrill Lynch unit, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) were the lead underwriters on the deal, but a small army of other banks — including Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C), Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE:CS), and Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC)  — also got in on the action.

Just how much money could this mean for the bankers that worked on the deal? According to Thomson Reuters’ investment banking league tables, there were $2.8 trillion in bonds sold globally through the first half of the year, leading to $11.6 billion in banking fees. So we could say that fees have typically run at around 0.4% of deal value. Do the quick math and you’ve got the potential for close to $200 million in total fees on just the debt issuance part of the Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) deal bonanza.

To be fair, the actual fees on the deal probably won’t be quite that high — it’s typical that companies are able to negotiate down fee levels on larger deals. But the fees will still be a nice chunk of change.

If you want to think in terms of winners and losers here, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) were the two global leaders in bond deal fees through the first half of the year. This will only further solidify their positions. Deutsche Bank AG (USA) (NYSE:DB), on the other hand, was No. 4 in global bond fees through June, but was nowhere to be found on this mega deal.

The article Here’s Who’s Getting Rich on the Verizon Debt Deal originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Matt Koppenheffer.

Matt Koppenheffer owns shares of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Barclays (ADR). The Motley Fool recommends Bank of America, Vodafone, and Wells Fargo. It owns shares of Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. 

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.