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By Daisy Ku
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - A flurry of cashcalls on the London market shows British firms are moving swiftly to ride a recent stock market rally and boost capital before possible jumbo deals by other companies swallow up available funds.
"Whilst the markets may be buoyant, boardroom directors will not forget in a hurry what it was like only six months ago. We will see a continued shift towards prudence in the capital structure," said Ben Canning, head of BNP Paribas' UK equity capital markets.
The prospect of Royal Bank of Scotland soon seeking to raise up to 4 billion pounds ($6.5 billion) and rival Lloyds possibly looking for over 10 billion has leant some urgency to the cashcalls, fund managers said.
Housebuilder Barratt Developments and publisher Yell topped a list of companies raising millions on Wednesday, calling for 720 million pounds and 500 million pounds respectively.
Shopping mall owner Liberty, housebuilder Redrow and miner Hambledon also asked investors for cash.
The moves come against the backdrop of a 5 percent rise in Britain's benchmark FTSE 100 share index this month, and a 21 percent rally since the end of June.
Analysts said the companies were doing the right thing -- taking advantage of the strong equity market.
UK listed companies have raised $106 billion so far this year, led by cashcalls by banks earlier in the year, up 57 percent from the same period a year ago and accounting for 17 percent of global volume, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Funds are available. In the first seven months of the year there was a net inflow of 6.9 billion euros ($10.2 billion) into UK equity funds, compared with a net outflow of 3.2 billion euros over the same period last year, the data showed.
The equity market has been a reliable source of capital for struggling companies throughout the financial crisis, said Erik Anderson, head of corporate broking at Investec.
"The market is open for existing companies of a decent quality with a good shareholder list," Anderson said.
But heavily indebted companies seeking funds need to first secure agreements with their banks, he said.
"No shareholder in his right mind is going to write a cheque to a company unless they know what the bank deal is," said Anderson.
Yell's cashcall came as part of a refinancing of its near 4 billion pounds of debt.
Bankers expect companies to continue to tap the equity market as investors and rating agencies are increasingly looking to common share equity as a key component of capital structure.
Companies such as ITV, which was downgraded earlier this month by S&P Ratings, could come to the market for equity, especially if their banks are threatening to cut lending or make it more expensive if their rating drops.
But not everyone will get their equity demand filled -- when HSBC launched its $19 billion rights issue, the biggest UK fundraising this year, smaller companies found it difficult to get enough support for their deals, banks said.
There are also signs of deal fatigue. Investors buying into rights issues since the start of May outperformed the top FTSEurofist 300 by 0.7 percent, sharply down from a 15.1 percent outperformance for those investing in rights issue since the start of the year, UBS analysts said last month. ($1=.6121 Pound) ($1=.6767 Euro) (Additional reporting by Tom Freke and Steve Slater; editing by John Stonestreet)