The runaway success of the €1.5bn ($1.4bn) exchangeable by Allianz, the German insurance group, into Siemens, the German electronics group, in February said just about everything that could be said about the growth of the European equity-linked market. It set the tone for what is widely expected to be a record year in German equity-linked issuance. The issue took the total value of equity-linked issues that week to €3.5bn, underlining the surge in capacity of the European market, while simultaneously highlighting the sheer scale of the Goldman Sachs equity-linked machine.

Allianz sold off half of its 2.6% stake in Siemens through the issue of €1.5bn of five-year exchangeable bonds in a deal which was more than five-times subscribed - a huge level of demand for the biggest deal of the year and the fourth largest euro-denominated equity-linked issue ever. The bonds offer a yield to maturity of 2.25% and an annual coupon of 2.00%.