Best bank – Blom
Best local partner – Banque Audi
Best debt house – JPMorgan
Blom continues to stand out in Lebanon as the best-run, most efficient, and most profitable bank in the country. The largest bank in the Lebanon, Blom’s greatest strength is in the retail sector where it has a consistent record for growth and innovation.
Despite a tough environment, Blom managed to increase its share of deposits from 13.76% to 14.58% in 2002 and to increase its profits from $80.2 million to $83.6 million. In fact, the bank’s profits and total assets have increased every year for over a decade. Its conservative approach to risk has also enabled it to maintain the lowest ratio of non-performing loans of any bank in Lebanon. At just 1.04%, Blom’s NPL ratio is less than half that of its leading competitors.
Despite Blom’s excellent credentials, Banque Audi takes the award for best local partner in Lebanon. Audi is the leader in structuring complex financing deals and is considered the most sophisticated player in the local capital markets. Its good IT infrastructure, extensive branch network and skilled deal makers make it the local partner of choice for some of the largest foreign banks in the region.
Lebanon has long been one of the most sophisticated financial centres in the Middle East. As a result, Lebanese issuers are among the most frequent and well established in the international bond market in the region. Over the past 12 months Lebanese issuers accounted for four of the 11 international bond issues from the region, the most by far from any one country. JPMorgan, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley each led one bond issue, but JPMorgan, which managed the June 2002 $100 million issue for Byblos Bank, wins the award for best debt house.
The 10-year deal included an innovative income participation rights issue, the first time the structure has been used in the region. Morgan Stanley led a much larger $750 million issue for the sovereign in August 2002. The deal, which was designed to refinance some government local bonds and which included $100 million as part of the republic’s MTN programme, was executed for no fee, and was a less innovative transaction.
