BEST BANK
Nordea
BEST DEBT HOUSE
Merrill Lynch
BEST EQUITY HOUSE
Nordea
BEST M&A HOUSE
Nordea
Nordea Bank Finland‘s $151 billion of assets are almost three times the $52 billion of second-placed bank OP, whose operating profit fell, according to the Bank of Finland.
Nordea Bank Finland recorded a 35% return on equity in 2004 – down on the previous year’s 44% – but still a significant achievement. And as part of a drive to maximize efficiency, it completed its sale of real estate across the Nordic region.
Although Merrill Lynch was not involved in the largest debt deal of the year from Finland, the €1 billion issue for Okobank, it was number one in the league table, with an 11.21% market share, compared with JPMorgan on 9.34%.
Merrill Lynch was also bookrunner – along with Deutsche Bank – on paper manufacturer Metso’s €274 million ($335 million) bond issue and exchange in November 2004, which enabled it to lengthen its maturity profile at a very low cost and with no covenants, despite being a high-yield issuer. The deal was a huge success and achieved one of the highest conversion rates ever for a bond exchange: 62%.
Nordea is not top of the equity league table – that honour goes to Goldman Sachs with a market share double that of second-placed Nordea’s 13.38% – but the Nordic bank was involved in many of the year’s most important deals. It was joint bookrunner, along with ABN Amro, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, on the year’s big hit, Neste Oil, which priced its €576 million IPO at the top of the range following a 20 times oversubscription in April. It was also underwriter, with Citigroup, on paper group M-Real’s €447.5 million rights issue, which allowed the company to begin a vital restructuring.
Three banks sit at the top of the M&A league tables – JPMorgan, Nordea and Handelsbanken – with less than 3% separating first place from third. In a close-fought competition, Nordea wins the award for the diversity of the deals it has undertaken.
From the €340 million acquisition of Alma Media by financial vehicle Alma Nova to a €32 million stock swap by information technology companies Digia and Sysopen, the bank has proved that it understands and can work effectively at every level of the market.
