| Global Awards for Excellence | ||
| Western Europe Regional Awards of Excellence | ||
| Austria | Belgium | Cyprus |
| France | Germany | Greece |
| Ireland | Italy | Netherlands |
| Portugal | Spain | Switzerland |
| UK | ||
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Best Bank: ING Belgium |
It was a disastrous year for Belgian banks. But amid the dismemberment and bailouts ING Belgium stood out. It earned a substantial pre-tax profit of €1.1 billion, €905 million after tax, which was achieved despite the difficult economic environment. Its deposit base remained stable, while its loan book rose by 9%.
This is one of ING’s home markets and it plays a central role in the bank’s business strategy – ING has established a separate unit for Belgium for wholesale banking which is headed by a Belgian. ING Belgium is pushing to become Belgium’s first universal direct bank. It has used the internet as a new fully fledged sales channel, operating alongside a traditional branch network. The wholesale banking division’s commitment to the Belgian market further manifested itself in a number of successful deals with top Belgian corporations during 2008.
JPMorgan’s dominance of investment banking activity in Belgium is remarkable. Whether it be pure M&A advisory or equity capital markets activity, the US bank was the busiest participant, with a 27% and 31% market share respectively.
More important than its dominant position was the significance of the deals it executed. It advised on all of the Belgian government’s interventions in its banks. So not only was it involved in the dismantling of Fortis, it also had a lead role in the capital increases of KBC, Dexia and Ethias.
Despite the turmoil in the global markets, one of the themes of the year was jumbo M&A in the corporate sphere. The biggest all-cash transaction on record was that of InBev and its $62 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch. JPMorgan was involved in the €6.4 billion rights issue and the $54.8 billion financing package.
