Best bank
Bank of Ireland
Best debt house
Barclays Capital
Best equity house
Davy Stockbrokers
Best M&A house
Lazard Brothers
| Maurice Keane | ||||||
The Irish banking market is dominated by two institutions, Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks. Traditionally, Bank of Ireland has been characterized as the more conservative of the two. While AIB sought growth in an aggressive acquisition strategy in the emerging markets of Poland and Singapore – the newly promoted chief executive Michael Buckley has earned his spurs by knocking these far-flung acquisitions into shape – Bank of Ireland has acquired closer to home. It picked up a modest share of the UK mortgage market when it bought Bristol&West in 1997 and also acquired New Ireland Assurance in the same year. It also operates Lifetime Assurance.
That leaves Bank of Ireland with some strong positions in attractive markets, particularly in long-term savings, wealth management and asset management through Bank of Ireland Asset Management (BIAM). It is these businesses that are now driving the bank forward.
And Bank of Ireland is also the leading bank to large Irish corporations for which it has structured and led a number of large syndicated credits in the past 12 months. These include the e1 billion credit for Independent News&Media and deals for Greencore Group and EBS Building Society. Chief executive Maurice Keane must keep an eye open up until his retirement next year for any deterioration in the bank’s loan quality, though there is no sign of this yet.
Barclays Capital is the firm the leading Irish banks themselves turn to for funding in the international bond markets. It has raised fixed and floating-rate funding in sterling, dollars and euros in the past 12 months for Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks and Irish Life&Permanent, and is the leading debt house for Irish borrowers.
In the equity market Davy Stockbrokers maintains its pre-eminent position. It now claims a 40% share of day-to-day trading in Irish equities with strong distribution to private clients and domestic and international institutions. Davy is broker and corporate adviser to Irish companies that together account for 65% of stock market capitalization. Its research team of nine analysts and one strategist is the largest dedicated to Irish stocks. It took lead roles in a number of large issues of shares for Irish companies, notably CRH, on which it partnered UBS Warburg.
In mergers and acquisitions in Ireland the deal of the moment is the likely sale of Eírcom to one or other of the competing private equity groups being advised by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. But it is Lazard that wins this year’s award for its work on a number of smaller deals, including buy-outs of Dunloe Ewart and Adare Printing.
