In the wake of the SEC's charges against Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), there was some talk that Goldman Sachs would have a tougher time winning business mandates. Some suggested that its IPO performance was starting to slide just a bit. After all, the bank had apparently missed out on some important deals, notably the GM deal and the Booz Allen Hamilton deal.

But the recent data suggests that these fears perhaps are overblown a bit, when it comes to the IPO market (IPO news).  

For one thing, it finished the first quarter on top of the league table for domestic deals. It generated $27.4 million in fees for underwriting seven deals that raised $610 million (or 21.2 percent of the total market). JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) came in second, generating $26.8 million for underwriting nine deals that raised $ 531 million. Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) generated $23.4 million for underwriting sven deals that raised $ 365 million. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays Capital rounded out the top five.  

For the entire first half, on a global basis, Goldman still fared decently, coming in third, falling one spot. JPMorgan overtook it to finish second, behind Morgan Stanley.  

Perhaps more importantly for issuers anyway, the quality of a Goldman Sachs deal still seems high. According to Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs, as the lead underwriter for IPOs, got the highest prices for their shares in the first half of 2010 compared to other banks. More than half of its deals were priced above the mean of the offering range, and Goldman deals accounted for four of this year's five biggest premiums.  

In the after market, Goldman-led deals also fared okay but not so well as to raise protests from the issuer. Its first-day gains were more than double the average 3.6 percent of other banks. For the first month of trading, Morgan Stanley generated the largest returns, averaging 7.8 percent.

It would be hard to make a firm conclusion based on this data about the state of Goldman Sachs' client relations. The equity IPO market is vastly different from the synthetic CDO market. The risks to the underwriter are much different. But it does suggest that in the IPO market at least, issuers will seek quality and they're not fazed by Goldman Sachs' regulatory woes. - Jim