Two firms have taken the novel step of launching simultaneous equity-linked bonds into the same underlying stock, STMicroelectronics, the Swiss semiconductor firm.

Lehman Brothers and UBS are joint bookrunners of a $1.2bn (€1bn) convertible bond from STMicroelectronics in the US bank's first European equity-linked deal as a bookrunner for 12 months, according to Dealogic, the investment banking research firm. At the same time Goldman Sachs, Mediobanca and Merrill Lynch are joint bookrunners and lead managers of a €500m ($575m) exchangeable bond from Finmeccanica into shares of STMicroelectronics. It is Goldman's first equity capital markets deal for the Italian defence group.