BEST BANK
National Bank of Abu Dhabi
BEST DEBT HOUSE
Deutsche Bank
BEST EQUITY HOUSE
The National Investor
National Bank of Abu Dhabi offers a breadth and depth of financial services to both retail and corporate customers that is unmatched in the country.
The largest bank in the UAE in terms of total assets, deposits and branch network, the bank has just reported an all-time record net profit of Dh500 million ($136 million) in the first quarter of 2005, a 132% increase on the first quarter of 2004.
NBAD has a superb range of retail, corporate and investment banking products and it is now playing a leading role on the advisory and lead managing sides of project finance as well as developing its international presence.
The debt award has been won by Deutsche Bank for the extremely impressive $1.65 billion facility arranged for the Dubai Ports Authority to help it acquire international terminal business CSX World Terminals.
CSX is a leading international container terminal developer and operator with businesses spanning Asia, Europe, Australia and Latin America.
Deutsche Bank acted as sole financial adviser, lead manager and initially sole underwriter for the transaction, which was the Port Authority’s first borrowing.
The transaction was so popular – with more than $5 billion orders received in less than a month – that the amount raised was increased from the initial figure of $1.45 billion to $1.65 billion and Deutsche Bank was able to reduce the pricing to Libor plus 75 basis points.
The figures speak for themselves. The order book was balanced, with 46% coming from Europe, 34% from Asia (establishing Dubai Ports as an Asian borrower), 15% from the Middle East and 5% from Japan. There were 62 banks involved in the syndication and 16 lead arrangers.
This year there was, as always, intense competition between the local investment houses for the best equities house award.
Shua’a Capital again performed well but the clear winner this time was The National Investor, which this year took 31.17% of the new-issue market, equivalent to some $187.2 million. This figure was significantly ahead of its competitors and has helped establish the bank as one of the leading investment and asset management businesses in the region.
The National Investor’s activities included the flotation of Aldar, which was the UAE’s largest ever IPO and was massively oversubscribed. This success has enabled the bank to look for opportunities to develop business across the region.
Indeed it has been an impressive year for the investment bank. The National Investor has announced dramatic increases in profits, which were up by almost 400% for the first nine months of the year. Furthermore, its portfolio of listed shares has comfortably outperformed the market indexes; the bank has also successfully increased its capital in an overwhelmingly oversubscribed offer.
