Best bank - Standard Bank
Best Debt House - DrKW
Best equities House - Deutsche Bank
Best M&A House - UBS
Best local partner - Investec
The past year has been turbulent for banking in South Africa. Some banks went into receivership, some were rescued through acquisition and others decided to throw in the towel and gave up their banking licences. After the consolidation dust had settled, Standard Bank, Absa, Nedbank and FirstRand were left controlling 80% of the country's banking assets between them.
Nedcor acquired BoE, FirstRand bought BoE's mortgage business and acquired Sambou and Absa acquired the 40% it didn't already own in Unifer. Standard Bank was the only one that didn't make any acquisitions so, while the other three banks were focusing on getting their acquisitions bedded down, it emerged from the past 12 months as the shining star, taking the award for best bank. At the end of 2002 Standard's headline earnings were up 19%, its return on equity was 20.3% and its cost-to-income ratio was at 57.3%.
Both DrKW and BarCap had a good year in South Africa in the debt markets. BarCap has been good in international and rand-denominated deals but not in syndicated loans.